Evaluation of Clutter Residue Censoring on the WSR-88D Radar System

Current thresholds for clutter residue (dB-for-dB) censoring in clutter suppression for the WSR-88D radar were set in 2006 based on limited I & Q data from the Radar Operations Center (ROC) WSR-88D testbed radar and the Oklahoma City, OK operational WSR-88D radar (KTLX). However, neither radar is suitable for determining the settings at locations with mountainous or significant local variations in terrain. Also, when the recent dual polarimetric upgrade was made, no reevaluation was conducted for the current thresholds. Since then, the ROC has collected I & Q data from the Pueblo, CO (KPUX) WSR-88D that includes precipitation in mountainous terrain and allows for an evaluation of the effectiveness of the current default settings in that environment. Using data playback software, variants of the dB-for-dB settings are processed, and a performance evaluation that includes both objective and subjective analysis methods is performed to determine if a change is warranted in the default values.