Azimuth 📡⛈️

az·i·muth (noun)

In radar meteorology, the direction of the radar beam, measured as a horizontal angle clockwise from true north.

Azimuth is a desktop NEXRAD Level 2 weather radar viewer and weather monitoring suite. It leverages hardware accelerated graphics with OpenGL to render high-resolution NEXRAD Level 2 weather radar data in real-time.

Screenshots

Note: some of these may be outdated

Features

• Supports reflectivity, velocity, and cross correlation products.
• View up to 4 different radar panes at once.
• Severe weather warnings are overlayed on the map and can be viewed in detail in the warnings tab of the sidebar.
• Supports looping and scrubbing up to the last 50 radar frames.
• All data is automatically updated in real time.

About NEXRAD Level 2 Data

NEXRAD (Next Generation Radar) is the U.S. network of weather surveillance radars operated by the National Weather Service. These Doppler radars provide critical weather information for forecasting and severe weather warnings.

What Makes Level 2 Data Special

NEXRAD Level 2 data represents the highest resolution raw radar data available to the public, offering several key advantages over processed Level 3 products:

• Full Angular Resolution: Level 2 data maintains the radar's native 1° and 0.5° angular resolution, providing the most detailed view of weather phenomena
• Higher Temporal Resolution: Data updates every 4-10 minutes compared to longer intervals for processed products
• Unprocessed Precision: Raw measurements without smoothing or averaging, preserving fine-scale weather features
• Enhanced Detail: Ability to detect and analyze smaller-scale weather features like mesocyclones, wind shear, and precipitation cores
• Superior Storm Analysis: Critical for identifying rotation signatures, hook echoes, and other severe weather indicators

This high-resolution data is essential for meteorologists, storm chasers, researchers, and weather enthusiasts who need the most detailed and timely radar information available. Azimuth brings this professional-grade data to your desktop with an intuitive, hardware-accelerated interface.

File Structure

/
├── gradle/ (gradle wrapper)
├── build/ (build output)
├── src/
│   └── main/
│       ├── kotlin/
│       │   ├── data/ (data models, state management, and services)
│       │   ├── map/ (map rendering and controls)
│       │   ├── meteo/ (weather data processing)
│       │   ├── rendering/ (OpenGL rendering pipeline)
│       │   ├── utils/ (utility functions)
│       │   ├── views/ (Swing UI components)
│       │   └── Main.kt (application entry point)
│       └── resources/ (application resources)
├── build.gradle.kts (build script)
├── settings.gradle.kts (project settings)
├── gradlew (gradle wrapper executable)
└── README.md

Tech Stack

• Core: Kotlin
• UI: Java Swing, FlatLaf
• Graphics: OpenGL (via LWJGL)
• Weather Data: UCAR NetCDF
• Concurrency: Kotlin Coroutines

Building and Running

To build and run the project, you will need to have a JDK 8 or higher installed.

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/rk234/azimuth.git
   cd azimuth

2. Build the project:

   ./gradlew build

3. Run the application:

   ./gradlew run

Warning

This project is still under active development. Features may be incomplete or unstable, and there are still features planned.