An Integrated Approach to Weather Radar Calibration and Monitoring Using Ground Clutter and Satellite Comparisons
Abstract
Abstract The stability and accuracy of weather radar reflectivity calibration are imperative for quantitative applications, such as rainfall estimation, severe weather monitoring and nowcasting, and assimilation in numerical weather prediction models. Various radar calibration and monitoring techniques have been developed, but only recently have integrated approaches been proposed, that is, using different calibration techniques in combination. In this paper the following three techniques are used: 1) ground clutter monitoring, 2) comparisons with spaceborne radars, and 3) the self-consistency of polarimetric variables. These techniques are applied to a C-band polarimetric radar (CPOL) located in the Australian tropics since 1998. The ground clutter monitoring technique is applied to each radar volumetric scan and provides a means to reliably detect changes in calibration, relative to a baseline. It is remarkably stable to within a standard deviation of 0.1 dB. To obtain an absolute calibration value, CPOL observations are compared to spaceborne radars on board TRMM and GPM using a volume-matching technique. Using an iterative procedure and stable calibration periods identified by the ground echoes technique, we improve the accuracy of this technique to about 1 dB. Finally, we review the self-consistency technique and constrain its assumptions using results from the hybrid TRMM–GPM andmore »
- Authors:
-
- School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Research and Development Branch, Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Environmental Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia
- NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Earth Science Office, Huntsville, Alabama
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1489712
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1491104
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0014063; AC02-06CH11357
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology Journal Volume: 36 Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 0739-0572
- Publisher:
- American Meteorological Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Tropics; Data quality control; Radars/Radar observations
Citation Formats
Louf, Valentin, Protat, Alain, Warren, Robert A., Collis, Scott M., Wolff, David B., Raunyiar, Surendra, Jakob, Christian, and Petersen, Walter A. An Integrated Approach to Weather Radar Calibration and Monitoring Using Ground Clutter and Satellite Comparisons. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1175/JTECH-D-18-0007.1.
Louf, Valentin, Protat, Alain, Warren, Robert A., Collis, Scott M., Wolff, David B., Raunyiar, Surendra, Jakob, Christian, & Petersen, Walter A. An Integrated Approach to Weather Radar Calibration and Monitoring Using Ground Clutter and Satellite Comparisons. United States. https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-18-0007.1
Louf, Valentin, Protat, Alain, Warren, Robert A., Collis, Scott M., Wolff, David B., Raunyiar, Surendra, Jakob, Christian, and Petersen, Walter A. Fri .
"An Integrated Approach to Weather Radar Calibration and Monitoring Using Ground Clutter and Satellite Comparisons". United States. https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-18-0007.1.
@article{osti_1489712,
title = {An Integrated Approach to Weather Radar Calibration and Monitoring Using Ground Clutter and Satellite Comparisons},
author = {Louf, Valentin and Protat, Alain and Warren, Robert A. and Collis, Scott M. and Wolff, David B. and Raunyiar, Surendra and Jakob, Christian and Petersen, Walter A.},
abstractNote = {Abstract The stability and accuracy of weather radar reflectivity calibration are imperative for quantitative applications, such as rainfall estimation, severe weather monitoring and nowcasting, and assimilation in numerical weather prediction models. Various radar calibration and monitoring techniques have been developed, but only recently have integrated approaches been proposed, that is, using different calibration techniques in combination. In this paper the following three techniques are used: 1) ground clutter monitoring, 2) comparisons with spaceborne radars, and 3) the self-consistency of polarimetric variables. These techniques are applied to a C-band polarimetric radar (CPOL) located in the Australian tropics since 1998. The ground clutter monitoring technique is applied to each radar volumetric scan and provides a means to reliably detect changes in calibration, relative to a baseline. It is remarkably stable to within a standard deviation of 0.1 dB. To obtain an absolute calibration value, CPOL observations are compared to spaceborne radars on board TRMM and GPM using a volume-matching technique. Using an iterative procedure and stable calibration periods identified by the ground echoes technique, we improve the accuracy of this technique to about 1 dB. Finally, we review the self-consistency technique and constrain its assumptions using results from the hybrid TRMM–GPM and ground echo technique. Small changes in the self-consistency parameterization can lead to 5 dB of variation in the reflectivity calibration. We find that the drop-shape model of Brandes et al. with a standard deviation of the canting angle of 12° best matches our dataset.},
doi = {10.1175/JTECH-D-18-0007.1},
journal = {Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology},
number = 1,
volume = 36,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jan 04 00:00:00 EST 2019},
month = {Fri Jan 04 00:00:00 EST 2019}
}
https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-18-0007.1
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