Convolutional Neural Networks for Hydrometeor Classification using Dual Polarization Doppler Radars

Conference · Fri Nov 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/ICDMW.2019.00050· OSTI ID:1761751

Lu, Yuping ^[1]; Kumar, Jitendra  ^[1]

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1. ORNL

Traditional fuzzy logic hydrometeor classification algorithm is a common way to classify precipitation type from dual polarization doppler radar. A new deep learning-based method is proposed to estimate hydrometeors efficiently using observed radar variables such as horizontal reflectivity (ZH), differential reflectivity (ZDR), correlation coefficient (HV ) and specific differential phase (KDP ) from National Weather Service NEXRAD collected at Vance AFB facility at the first elevation angle from January 1st, 2015 to July 31th, 2019. We stack matrices of values from these four polarimetric variables as one 3D array. Samples are preprocessed and divided into training, validation and test set with four target hydrometeor categories (Ice Crystals (IC), Dry Snow (DS), Light and/or Moderate Rain (RA) and Big Drops (rain) (BD)). We developed and optimized five Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) architectures and achieved an accuracy of 87.23% and 93.736% respectively using modified ResNet with two different input data selection strategies for hydrometeor classification. Training data selection strategies were important to ensure use of available samples in training for robust performance evaluated by applying the models to novel time period beyond what was use to train the model. Seasonal variation in atmospheric conditions lead to seasonal patterns of liquid vs solid forms of precipitation, that poses challenge for classifier and offer insights into domain specific approaches required for problem of hydrometeor identification. Computationally efficient and scalable approach for classification of hydrometeors offer opportunities to effectively use the large volumes of rich time series of radar observations that are becoming increasingly available.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1761751
• Resource Relation: Conference: International Conference on Data Mining Workshops (ICDMW 2019) - Beijing, , China - 11/8/2019 5:00:00 AM-11/11/2019 5:00:00 AM
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English