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• Much improved ability to identify areas of extremely heavy rainfall that are closely linked with flash floods
• Improved detection and mitigation of non-weather related radar echoes (chaff, smoke plumes, ground clutter)
• Easier identification of the melting layer (helpful for identifying snow levels in higher terrain)
• Improved ability to classify precipitation type
• The full benefit of dual-pol radar, however, will not be fully realized until NWS forecasters and research meteorologists develop real-time expertise.

• A radio wave is a set of oscillating electric and magnetic fields, oriented 90 degrees to each other. Polarization of the wave is the direction, or orientation, of the electric field.

The electric field is oriented horizontally, along the x-axis (blue). The magnetic field is oriented vertically along the y-axis (white).

The electric field is oriented vertically, along the y-axis (orange). The magnetic field is oriented horizontally along the x-axis (white).