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6. Radar Images
At a few places in Britain and Ireland there are instruments called radar. While they were originally developed during the Second World War to locate flying objects (such as planes) they can now be tuned to locate raindrops. A radar works by emitting and receiving radio waves. As the instrument emits a beam in all directions (hence the circular regions on the map) and then receives the 'echo' or beam that is reflected off objects that block its path. On the radar image the intensity of the echo is depicted with colours. Wherever the image is black there is no echo, and then it proceeds from blue to green, yellow, orange and red (most intense). This image was compiled at the same time as the satellite image. Notice that the band of cloud on the satellite corresponds to the occluded front on the map and to the region of intense echo on the radar map.
