In cloud horizontal wind profiles using the Scanning W-Band ARM Cloud Radar

The Scanning W-band ARM Cloud Radar (SWACR) is the first scanning cloud radar of the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (ARM) program and has been used for 3D cloud observations and for testing cloud sampling strategies for the dual-frequency, Doppler, polarimetric Scanning ARM Cloud Radars (SACR). One of the suggested scan strategies of the SWACR is a sequence of 6 horizon-to-horizon RHI's evenly spaced in azimuth (HS-RHI scan strategy) to provide a static (4 min) view of cloud conditions around the ARM fixed and mobile sites. In this work, we analyzed data from the 94-GHz Scanning W-Band ARM Cloud Radar located in the Southern Great Plains ARM Site (SGP). The VAD technique was applied to the SWACR data in order to retrieve the horizontal wind profile with high spatial and temporal resolution. This wind retrieval in the cloud layer could provide a very good insight in the dynamical process involved in the evolution of clouds. Corroboration of these results was also performed with sounding data from the SGP site with a 3 hours resolution. The results provided by this comparison showed a very good correspondence between the measured (sounding) and retrieved (HS-RHI) wind magnitude and direction for the case analyzed.