Echo tops (TOPS)

Figure 1. TOPS example
Live TOPS Example

TOPS (also known as echo tops) is the radar-indicated top of an area of precipitation. The system locates the highest altitude of the defined reflectivity threshold at each pixel location.

TOPS displays the detected signal echoes above the value defined in the Threshold (dBZ), which usually measures the top of the precipitation area or cloud cover.

TOPS can be useful when identifying strong updrafts, severe weather, and hail.

The opposite of the TOPS product is the BASE product.

Figure 2. BASE and TOPS products