Solar calibrations with dual polarization weather radar

The paper describes the solar measurements performed with a new dual polarization weather radar at the weather radar laboratory of the University of Helsinki. A set of solar measurements was done in order to define the channel balance of the receiver system, the basic characteristics of the antenna radiation patterns and the azimuthal pointing accuracy of the antenna-pedestal system. Preliminary results indicate that this kind of measurements can be easily used to verify and monitor the performance of a dual polarization radar system.