Monday, 23 January 2017
4E (Washington State Convention Center )
Handout (545.7 kB)
Estimations of the parameters of particles in clouds and precipitation require accurate polarimetric radar measurements. Such measurements strongly depend on the quality of a radar antenna especially for radars with simultaneous transmission of polarized waves. One of the critical antenna parameters is the level of coupling between the waves on an antenna. To estimate the level, antenna measurements are used, which are laborious procedures on a special antenna range.
An alternative way to obtain the antenna quality parameter is discussed. The approach is based on radar measurements in the depolarization mode, in which a wave of one polarization is transmitted and the primary and depolarized waves are received. Such measurements in drizzle allow obtaining the level of antenna coupling. Results of such measurements made with the WSR-88D antenna show that the coupling is lower than -42 dB. The application of the measurements to an antenna of phased array weather radar is also discussed.
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