Do cops write tickets when its raining????

[2wheelmike]

Originally Posted by PFFOG

And to answer your question, I believe radar is ineffective in heavy rain do to too much "noise" from the rain.

In the radar business, the "noise" from rain is referred to as "clutter" which is different from the range limitations caused by the radar receiver ("thermal noise" at microwave frequencies). The scattering off the rain droplets gets stronger as the transmit power is increased, so sensitivity does not improve in the case of this being the limiting interference. It may be the case that rain clutter is the limitation on performance, but that would depend on the speed of the rain drops relative to the speed of the target and whether the logic in the processor can sort out the difference. Probably a more significant limitation is absorption and diffuse scattering (non-retrodirective) of Ku, Ka, and laser energy (in increasing order of weather degradation). This is the reason airport radars don't use these higher frequencies. They would be radically degraded by even mildly bad weather. Unfortunately, at close enough range, they still might get you-

[DigDirt]

I saw 3 cops along the Dragon at Deals Gap yesterday. That’s the same number of bikes I saw while I was there. I had the impression the cops would have happily chased me down (if they caught me breaking the law ) and written a ticket despite the rain. The horrible weather kept the sane people away.

Sorry I didn’t get to meet any of you at the GMR, although I did get to meet a few interesting people (pretty sure I had dinner with a relative of the Unabomber). Next time!

Brian


not often you'll see this place empty on a Sunday