Weather Radar Networking

Over the past twenty years, there has been a rapid expansion in the number of opera tional, digital weather radars in Europe. Work within COST 73 stimulated the use of data from these radars and also demonstrated the potential of the international exchange of weather radar data in near real-time. The Management Committee of the COST 73 Project have laid the foun dations upon which future international operational radar networking may be built in Europe, and has indicated the directions that future weather radar technological developments might take. Throughout this five year Project, it has been possible to achieve success o~ through the goodwill of the participants. The considerable international co-operation is, in no smaIl measure, the underpinning reason why the Management Committee of COST 73 have been able to address such a wide range of topics within the general category of international weather radar networking. It has been an honour to have had the opportunity to act as Chairman of a group of meteorolo gists, engineers and managers possessing such a wide variety of talents and experience. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all for their many and varied contributions.