A New Data System for Radar Wind Profilers

An all new radar data system has been developed for use as a commercial product for wind profilers. The system utilizes a digital intermediate frequency radio receiver card, with a 14-bit analog-to-digital converter, and a model 4016 Graychip digital downconverter. It also contains a 4-channel 14-bit digital-to-analog converter, acting as an arbitrary waveform generator, for various required timing and control signals. Both cards are part of a growing supply of commercially available cards designed primarily for the software radio market. The radar operations and data processing software was developed primarily with LabVIEW® along with supporting C++ routines, in about 18 months. Most low-level processes use built-in LabVIEW functions ,while high-level data processing routines use time-height continuity analysis routines for multiple-peak discrimination and data quality control. Six radar wind profilers have been delivered utilizing the new data system. The implementation, specifications and results will be discussed.