A NEXRAD WSR-88D weather radar in Alaska, the United States, operated by Federal Aviation Administration.
- Station
- Middleton Island (PAIH)
- Operator
- Federal Aviation Administration
- Network
- NEXRAD WSR-88D
- Antenna
- 59.462° N, 146.301° W, 67 ft (20 m) above sea level
- Products
- Reflectivity, composite reflectivity, echo tops, vertically integrated liquid, velocity, correlation coefficient, differential reflectivity, specific differential phase (KDP), spectrum width
PAIH is the NEXRAD weather radar on Middleton Island, in the Gulf of Alaska about 130 km southwest of Cordova. The island has an unattended airport and the radar, and no town; Cordova is the nearest place of any size, with Valdez, Seward, Bear Creek and Girdwood further off.
It is a WSR-88D. The NEXRAD Radar Operations Center lists it as one of the 12 radars in its Federal Aviation Administration group, with the National Weather Service forecast office in Anchorage as the responsible office; the Anchorage office describes it as the radar it uses on Middleton Island. In July 2017 the office called it a 20 year old radar when a new signal processor was installed, the first of four major upgrades planned to keep the WSR-88D fleet running into the 2030s.
The island was briefly home to Middleton Island Air Force Station, an early warning radar station, from 1958 until 1963.
Radar shows rain, snow and hail, not cloud, and nothing below its lowest beam; far from the antenna the beam passes high above the ground.