Plans for Weather Observation and Calibration with the Advanced Technology Demonstrator

The Advanced Technology Demonstrator is planar phased array radar aiming to explore the risks involved in satisfying the missions of weather, aviation, and security agencies in the US. The radar is expected to be operational in 2018 at Norman, OK.  Herein reported are plans for the configuration and calibration that should make weather measurements compatible with the ones on the WSR-88D network.  The most demanding measurement with the current radars is the one which covers  the low elevations to over 460 km in range with no ambiguities or system-related biases in the polarimetric variable estimates whatsoever.  This capability is expected on any candidate replacement technology.  Proposed is a volume coverage pattern and geometry for the ADT that would satisfy this requirement with a reasonable expectation of producing polarimetric variables with accuracies comparable to the ones on the current network. Plans for calibration of the polarimetric variables are discussed, and the path to make a successful demonstration is outlined.