Dr. Novak's Corner

What is Radar? Radar is like a flashlight in the dark. When it’s dark out and you shine your flashlight at something, you can see what it is. Radar does the same thing. Just like shining your flashlight on something at night lets you see what’s there, shining your radar at something also lets you see what’s there. But radar is much more powerful than a flashlight because it can see many miles and miles away, and it can see anytime of day or night, and it can see through the clouds, rain, and fog. A flashlight can’t do that! Because a radar can see for miles and miles, there are radars on satellites high up in the sky looking down at the earth. Here is a picture of a radar on a satellite: These satellite radars are used to show us where there are rain storms, snow storms, hurricanes, etc. Every night on the TV evening news broadcasts we see radar maps of the USA showing these storm patterns and we can predict if and when a storm will reach Boston.
Here is a radar picture of the Mississippi River taken from the radar on the satellite:
An airplane is flying from Boston to New Mexico. It is very foggy or cloudy or raining in New Mexico. Upon arriving in New Mexico, the pilot can’t see the airport runways. The pilot can’t land the airplane – so he turns on his radar and then he can 'see' the runways. Now he can safely land the plane. Here is a picture of what the pilot would see with his radar. Someday there will be tiny radars attached to the front bumper of every car, truck, and school bus. These radars will look ahead to see if another vehicle is getting too close and will tell us to watch out! Radar will make driving a car much safer and will save many lives by preventing car crashes. Today the police use tiny radars that look just like flashlights to catch those drivers who drive too fast – and this makes it safer for us to drive our car

Lake Constance		Rhine River
	Clickable Map of the World		Vienna from Space