Improvements to ARM's Widely-used Millimeter Wavelength Radar Product, the ARSCL VAP

The U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program archives a continuous, ongoing and publicly available record of zenith-pointing millimeter-wavelength radar observations and corresponding Value-Added Products (VAPs), beginning in 1997 and available at a number of climatically-important sites worldwide.  This observation and product record continues following the 2011 upgrade of the profiling cloud radars from their origins as Millimeter Cloud Radars (MMCRs) to the current Ka-band ARM Zenith Radars (KAZRs).  Here we discuss the corresponding recent updates to the widely-used Active Remote Sensing of CLouds (ARSCL) VAP, which combines radar, lidar, rain gauge and microwave radiometer measurements to produce corrected best-estimate reflectivites, Doppler velocities and spectrum widths, as well as hydrometeor masks and cloud (hydrometeor) boundaries.  The new KAZR-based ARSCL product has been more fully automated, has higher temporal and vertical spatial resolution, improved velocity dealiasing and insect detection, plus gaseous attenuation correction.  We also discuss efforts underway to incorporate collocated profiler and disdrometer measurements to detect and flag regions where reflectivities are saturated, to identify and quantify wet radome effects and provide attenuation estimates in precipitation.