Az/Ran

This storm attribute helps to locate a certain cell on the radar's composite reflectivity product.

Az, which is short for azimuth, tells the direction the cell is from the radar in degrees. For example, an az, or azimuth, of 180 degrees means that a particular storm is directly south of the radar site.

Ran tells the distance that a cell is from the radar in nautical miles. For example, on a 124 nautical mile sweep, a cell with a ran of 62 would appear exactly between the radar site and the perimeter of the radar sweep.

The "Az/Ran" of each detected storm is plotted on the radar image, if desired by the radar operator, with the cell identification code just beneath it, and the projected path of the storm ahead of it.