J.S. Marshall Radar Observatory - Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec
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N 45° 25.438 W 073° 56.268
18T E 583097 N 5030598
J.S. Marshall Radar Observatory of McGill University is located in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec, Canada
Waymark Code: WMBR2H
Location: Québec, Canada
Date Posted: 06/15/2011
Views: 45
The J.S. Marshall Radar Observatory (MRO) is a McGill University facility housing several weather radars and other meteorological sensors. It is one of the components of the McGill Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences department where students in remote sensing perform their research.
The main radar, inaugurated in 1968, does the weather surveillance for the Montréal area. It is used 24 hours a day by Environment Canada to monitor the weather in a radius of 250 km around Montréal.
Inside the radome (the big white golf ball on the picture), a 9 m radar antenna rotates clockwise, making one rotation every 10 s. It also gradually points higher; this way, the radar makes measurements at 24 elevation angles from near the horizon to more than 34 degrees. Then, the antenna comes back down, and this cycle, known as a volume scan, is repeated every five minutes.
As the MRO is a research as well as an operational radar, the large amount of data accumulated is studied for further development in radar hardware and software capabilities. The data are correlated with the other instruments in related research.
The observatory is located on McGill University's Macdonald Campus in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue at the entrance of the Morgan Arboratum.
Sources: J.S. Marshall Radar Observatory Website: (
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