Meteorological Radar Signal Processing

Abstract

Modern meteorological Doppler radar has applications related to measurements of precipitation intensities and kinematics in convective storms, widespread stratiform precipitating systems, winter frontal and cyclonic storm systems, and other cloud systems. In addition, air velocities may be measured in the optically clear atmosphere from backscatter due to refractive index perturbations or from dispersed chaff tracers. In order to derive the maximum scientific benefit from Doppler radar it is necessary to process vast quantities of data in real time at rates in excess of 1 MHz. Fortunately, current integrated circuit technology permits such processing. However, this ability to process data rapidly also produces data rapidly and results in large data sets which must be stored and processed further for outputs of maximum meteorological significance to be derived. Even when data compression ratios of 100:1 are achieved in real time, modern meteorological Doppler radar can produce 9-track, 732-m (2400-ft) tapes at the rate of two per hour. This paper describes the chain of processing from real-time processing and acquisition, to displaying processed single and multiple Doppler radar data. The paper also describes briefly the meteorological significance of the work.