Radar question

[Dave Marshall]

Given that bit of intel, 5 letters Chris...AWACS.

They're S-band, and they play in that MOA heavily. Being at Tinker, they play all over the Midwest. The nature of their RADAR would also ensure that most of the interference would be side-lobe, resulting in those spokes. Any main beam jamming would be very brief (less than a second or two), and probably would be discarded by the NWS radar's software. There are other platforms, but they're further off frequency.

 

[Bobby Prentice]

Bobby, do these spikes occur on multiple radars at the same time, or various RADARs in the area are affected sporadically and independently?

Dave, they frequently occur on multiple radars at the same time. And you are correct that AWACS is a likely cause.