Microwave pulses…what am I looking at here

[CrusaderFrank]

What is this?

Please explain the microwave activity

Thank you

 

[Crepitus]

You aren't looking at "microwave pulses". What that is is weather satellite imagery generated by microwave radar.

Nothing nefarious there.

 

[The Duke]

It appears to be an eastward moving low pressure front.

 

[ReinyDays]

That's attenuation noise ... if the radar isn't picking up any rain echoes, the operators increase the sensitivity ... literally dust and pollen ... (but not grass) ...

The radiowave and microwave portions of the EM spectrum are regulated by the FCC ... and the 10 cm band is assigned to the NWS for weather radar ... just happens to be microwaves is all, nothing special ... as harmless as radio ...

The analogy to a microwave oven isn't quite correct ... in the oven, we're concentrating energy ... radar disperses the energy, half is in space within a single thousandths of a second ...