Clutter mitigation in diverse environments

The effects of ground clutter on weather radar data can be mitigated by applying a ground clutter filter to the data. Various types of filter can operate either on the the time domain signal or the equivalent frequency domain data. However, such filters typically at best can reduce the clutter signal about 50dB. Since clutter signatures are frequently above 70 dBZ there are many cases where significant clutter residue remains after filtering. This paper investigates and characterizes ground clutter from several radars and examines the clutter residue problem. Residual ground clutter removal techniques are investigated. Also, a number of different filtering techniques are tested and compared using both simulated data and experimental data. A combination of a primary filter and residue correction is shown to significantly mitigate the clutter residue problem.