The evolution of the Met Office radar data quality control and product generation system: Radarnet

The Met Office's weather radar network is currently in the middle of an upgrade programme which is seeing the introduction of new, in-house designed, C-band dual-polarisation Doppler radars. The radar network upgrade programme is being staged over a number of years which means that the centralised radar data quality control and product generation system (Radarnet) needs be robustly designed to handle a mixed network of single and dual polarisation radars. The availability of the polarimetric variables provides an opportunity to make significant improvements to quality control and correction of data, in particular in the identification of clutter, classification of hydrometeors and correction for attenuation. There is also the potential for improving the quality of precipitation estimates through the use of specific differential phase and better characterisation of the melting layer. Such improvements will help meet demanding and evolving user requirements across a number of application areas, including nowcasting, NWP, hydrology and aviation. An overview of the Radarnet system design, achievements to date, and the plans for further exploitation of the dual polarisation data, will be given.