Typically, in weak to moderate echo regions the WSR-88D composite system noise is nearly constant at the thermal noise level; while in strong echo regions, the composite system noise changes as the signal strength increases. This constantly changing noise level presents a unique problem in strong clutter environments and complicates the task of reflectivity, velocity, and spectrum width estimate recovery in mixed clutter regions.

Recently, the WSR 88D receiver was upgraded replacing analog components with digital components. The digital receiver upgrade lowered the composite system noise level in strong echo regions by removing the automatic gain control system. This paper presents the methods the upgraded WSR-88D system mitigates composite noise effects on reflectivity, velocity, and spectrum width estimates. Additionally, the results of optimizing censoring are presented.