NEXRAD
Fourth-generation weather radars used by the National Weather Service
The WSR-88D (Weather Surveillance Radar, 1988, Doppler), commonly known as NEXRAD (Next Generation Radar), is a high-resolution S-band Doppler weather radar deployed across the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam and South Korea as a network of 158 radar units individually operated by the National Weather Service (NWS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the United States Air Force (USAF). The NEXRAD network as a whole is supported by the Radar Operations Center (ROC).
The WSR-88D detects precipitation and atmospheric movement or wind. It returns data which when processed can be displayed in a mosaic map which shows patterns of precipitation and its movement. The radar system operates in two basic modes, selectable by the operator – a slow-scanning clear-air mode for analyzing air movements when there is little or no activity in the area, and a precipitation mode, with a faster scan for tracking active weather. The WSR-88D has an increased emphasis on automation, including the use of algorithms and automated volume scans.
Deployment
In the 1970s, the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Defense, and Transportation, agreed that to better serve their operational needs, the existing national radar network needed to be replaced. The radar network consisted of WSR-57 developed in 1957, and WSR-74 developed in 1974. Neither system employed Doppler technology, which provides wind speed and direction information.
The Joint Doppler Operational Project (JDOP) was formed in 1976 at the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) to study the usefulness of using Doppler weather radar to identify severe and tornadic thunderstorms.
“NEXRAD” enters the record as fourth-generation weather radars used by the National Weather Service. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what NEXRAD, Fourth-generation and weather can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“NEXRAD” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, NEXRAD, Fourth-generation and weather provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3088597. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1988, 1957, 1974 and 1976.
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This entry incorporates text from “NEXRAD” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.