Combining the Coherency Based Detection and the 2D Despeckling to Improve Signal Detection in Dual-polarization Weather Radars

Currently the WSR-88D network of weather surveillance radars (i.e., NEXRAD) uses only power estimates for signal censoring. The planned network upgrade to dual polarization will result in 3dB SNR reduction because transmitter output will be split between horizontal and vertical channels. As a result, this will diminish radar sensitivity if the current power based censoring scheme is retained. Two possible approaches have been proposed. One mitigates the effects of SNR decrease by utilizing the weather signal coherency in sample-time and across channels. Other, does so by processing one dimensional censoring output in two dimensions. In this paper, combination of two techniques is investigated, whereas the initial coherency based censoring output is further processed in a two dimensional field.