Next-Generation Airborne Radar Scientific Software

Recent advances in Phased Array Radar (PAR) technology have resulted in the ongoing development of airborne, dual-Doppler capable PAR platforms. In order to keep pace with these innovative technologies, next-generation scientific software is also being developed. This talk describes the efforts being made into new software development aimed at creating a cohesive radar processing pipeline. Two novel techniques are as follows. Random-forest Optimized Non-meteorological IdentificatioN (RONIN) is a tool implementing the algorithm described in DesRosiers and Bell (2024) for the automated removal of non-meteorological echo from airborne radar data. RONIN extends the functionality in DesRosiers and Bell by applying a multi-pass machine learning approach as well as allowing user-specified probability decision thresholds. These upgrades result in increased accuracy metrics relative to existing automated quality control systems. Quality-controlled radar data output from RONIN can then be used as input to improved multi-Doppler synthesis packages Spline Analysis at Mesoscale Utilizing Radar and Aircraft Instrumentation (SAMURAI) and SAMURAI-Thermodynamic Retrieval (SAMURAI-TR) to create high-quality three-dimensional analyses of wind, pressure, and temperature fields. A new software tool called Daisho.jl, incorporating comprehensive radar analysis features, is being written entirely in the Julia programming language, further discussed herein.