Monday, 28 August 2023
Boundary Waters (Hyatt Regency Minneapolis)
Handout (2.7 MB)
The University of Wyoming King Air (UWKA) Research Facility is undergoing major upgrades to infrastructure and measurement capabilities. At the core of the upgrades is the development of the Next Generation King Air (NexKA) research aircraft following the retirement of the UW King Air (N2UW; operating since 1977) in summer 2022. The new aircraft, a slightly larger, more capable King Air 350 aircraft is expected to come online and be available to the scientific community in 2024. Modifications to the new aircraft will advance the capabilities of in situ and remote sensing observations. With respect to the Wyoming Cloud Radar (WCR) measurements, two new zenith ports on the NexKa allow the installation of near-zenith and 30 degree forward of vertical pointing antennas. Now with two down- and two up-looking antennas, full profile Dual-Doppler analyses will be possible along the NexKA flight track.
Concurrent with the NexKA development, a Mid-scale Research Infrastructure award is supporting upgrades to both the WCR and the UW Department of Atmospheric Science (DAS) owned Ka-band Probe Radar (KPR). These upgrades were implemented by ProSensing Inc. in collaboration with the UW DAS. WCR improvements include improved internal power calibration, various upgraded/replaced components, repackaging, and a new user interface for radar control and real-time display. KPR upgrades include larger 11” (0.28 m) antennas and the ability to use Quadratic Phase Coding (QPC). The QPC mode improves sensitivity at all ranges, including those close to the aircraft by transmitting up to 45% duty cycle, while having low range sidelobes (~75 dB) for better measurements near the ground. This presentation demonstrates the capabilities of the upgraded radars and includes discussion of their installation/operation during projects, a description of data product processing into CfRadial2 -formatted NetCDF-4 files, and shows examples of preliminary data and analyses.
Concurrent with the NexKA development, a Mid-scale Research Infrastructure award is supporting upgrades to both the WCR and the UW Department of Atmospheric Science (DAS) owned Ka-band Probe Radar (KPR). These upgrades were implemented by ProSensing Inc. in collaboration with the UW DAS. WCR improvements include improved internal power calibration, various upgraded/replaced components, repackaging, and a new user interface for radar control and real-time display. KPR upgrades include larger 11” (0.28 m) antennas and the ability to use Quadratic Phase Coding (QPC). The QPC mode improves sensitivity at all ranges, including those close to the aircraft by transmitting up to 45% duty cycle, while having low range sidelobes (~75 dB) for better measurements near the ground. This presentation demonstrates the capabilities of the upgraded radars and includes discussion of their installation/operation during projects, a description of data product processing into CfRadial2 -formatted NetCDF-4 files, and shows examples of preliminary data and analyses.
- Indicates paper has been withdrawn from meeting
- Indicates an Award Winner