Preliminary results using the NWRT monopulse radar for spaced antenna interferometric measurements of weather

Preliminary results using the NWRT monopulse radar for spaced antenna

interferometric measurements of weather

Yinguang Li1, Richard J. Doviak2, and Guifu Zhang1,

Dave Priegnitz3, Christopher D. Curtis3

1: University of Oklahoma

2: NSSL

3: Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, University of Oklahoma and NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory

Spaced-Antenna Interferometer (SAI) has been successfully used in the profiling radar community for high atmospheric wind measurements. The National Weather Radar Testbed (NWRT) offers the opportunity of applying the SAI technique to weather measurements. SAI normally consists of two (or more) receivers that are spatially separated—allowing interferometry measurements. Although the NWRT does not have space-separated receivers, it is a monopulse system containing three channels: sum, azimuth difference, and elevation difference whose signals can be used for SAI measurement. Recently, the difference channels have been activated and connected to the receiver along with the sum channel using a switch. A dataset from a storm event has been collected and processed.

In this paper, we present preliminary results from the NWRT data collection and processing of weather measurements. The SAI theory is extended to the monopulse configuration so that weather state parameters are linked to the signal correlations. Then, the auto- and cross-correlation functions are estimated from the sum and difference signals. The correlation estimates are used to estimate apparent wind (cross-beam wind and shear) and turbulence. The results are compared to measurements from a wind profiler located at the Kessler farm and from dual-Doppler radars.