Adapting CLEAN-AP for C-Band Polarimetric Doppler Weather Radars

Ground clutter continues to be a major source of contamination for weather estimates in polarimetric, Doppler weather radars. The CLEAN-AP filter has been shown to automate the mitigation of ground clutter contamination using data from the United States network of S-band, dual polarization, Doppler weather radars. Upgrades to the United Kingdom (UK) network of Doppler weather radars to include dual polarization and improvements to signal processing are well underway. Through a Memorandum of Agreement between the National Severe Storms Laboratory and the UK Met Office, we began extending the CLEAN-AP filter to process data from the UK network of C-band dual polarization, Doppler weather radars. In this paper, we explore the use of the CLEAN-AP filter to mitigate ground clutter on C-band radars, and we present improvements made to the filter to optimize its performance. This is quantified and illustrated using simulations and real data collected with the UK Met Office radar testbed (Warden Hill).