Artifacts Observed in ARM Radar Datasets

The Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility operates multiple frequency radars at both fixed sites and mobile deployments around the world. These radars are meant to observe both clouds and precipitation, but artifacts of non-meteorological data can also be observed. Identifying and masking out these artifacts is typically the first step in the data quality process. Masking non-meteorological data is also critical in the development of higher-level products such as rain rates and hydrometeor identification. Here, several different artifacts that are visible in both scanning and vertically pointing radar data are discussed. Ground clutter, such as terrain, wind turbine towers, or trees, is often observed in scanning radars. Atmospheric biota including birds and insects can also be observed, which often have diurnal cycles in clear weather. Additionally, radio interference, second trips, and sidelobe artifacts can be prevalent at times in the data. These radar artifacts will be examined at a number of different ARM sites and methods to identify and mask these artifacts will be discussed.