The CSIRO has announced the purchase of a new dual-polarisation weather research radar which will set atop the new research vessel Investigator.

The 1.75 tonne radar, which the CSIRO says will help answer some of the big questions around weather and atmospheric changes, will take pride of place on the 93.9 metre purpose-built research vessel currently under construction in Singapore.

The Executive Director for the Future Research Vessel Project, Toni Moate, said the  radar will be installed on the highest point of Investigator and will be able to collect cloud and weather data anytime, anywhere in the world's oceans.

"Data will be gathered from clouds towering 20 kilometres over the tropical ocean to cold ice storms in the Antarctic, in a 150 kilometre radius from the ship, and will have a broad range of research applications," Ms Moate said.

The dual-polarisation weather radar is part of a new generation of weather technology that is being compared to the difference in television between black and white to colour technology.  The greater detail provided by the state-of-the-art device will allow meteorologists to gather more information about the atmosphere than ever before, including clearly seeing the difference between rain and snow.