A 449MHz modular wind profiler development study

A new wind profiler using a modular design and operating at 449MHz has been proposed for development at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and at the University of Oklahoma. The system aims to meet the need in the NCAR user community for wind profilers with improved spatial and temporal resolution, flexibility, and ease of deployment. It is proposed that the system would use a number of modular panels each of which is largely self-contained with a transmitter, receiver, antenna, and data acquisition and processing unit. The modules can be combined together to produce radars of varying size depending on the phenomena to be studied. For example, a large number of panels could be assembled to probe as deep as the tropopause. Alternatively, a number of smaller radars consisting of just a few panels could be assembled to probe the boundary layer over an extended area. This paper will report on a design study for the new radar being carried out at NCAR this summer.