A study of Radar Angels near West Coast of India

Abstract

A new type of well marked radar angels often having characteristic wave structure has been frequently observed on the P.P.I. scope of a 3-cm radar based at Bombay. Observations over a period of fifteen months have been analysed. The echoes are observed in the late afternoons and early night hours only during the months March-May; the activity reaching its peak in the month of April. They are most prominent on days with markedly high temperatures. The possibility of these echoes being caused by back-scattering from horizontally stratified layer containing very sharp refractive index gradients, is discussed. The wave structure of the echoes is attributed to the existence of shear-gravity waves in the stratified layer.