Doppler Beam Swinging Research Articles

CUSTR- A VHF phased array radar for observation of atmospheric dynamics and ionospheric plasma irregularities

A VHF phased array radar for atmospheric dynamics observation is installed at the University of Calcutta, Kolkata. The Calcutta University Stratosphere-Troposphere Radar (CUSTR) operates at 53 MHz with 475 three sub-element Yagi-Uda antenna array. The CUSTR system is a high-power fully active phased array system with a dedicated 2 kW solid-state Transmit-Receiver Module (TRM) attached to each antenna, providing a total peak power of 950 kW with 47.5 kW average power at 5% maximum duty ratio. The system provides electronic beam steering capability to steer the beam 360° in azimuth direction with a maximum off-zenith angle of 40°. The array is configured with 25 sub-arrays and operates either in a combined mode in Doppler Beam Swinging or in Spaced Antenna mode using a multi-channel digital receiver system. The TRM has been designed to provide a very short pulse of 0.5 µs and a long pulse of 128 µs. The system description along with the initial scientific observations such as atmospheric boundary layer, troposphere-lower stratosphere wind measurements along with preliminary wind validation, mesosphere echoes and ionosphere irregularities are presented.

Near-Surface Wind Profiling in a Utility-Scale Onshore Wind Farm Using Scanning Doppler Lidar: Quality Control and Validation

Wind profiling within operating wind farms is important for both wind resource assessment and wind power prediction. With increasing wind turbine size, it is getting difficult to obtain wind profiles covering the turbine-affecting area due to the limited height of wind towers. In this study, a stepwise quality control and optimizing process for deriving high-quality near-surface wind profiles within wind farms is proposed. The method is based on the radial wind speed obtained by the Doppler Wind Lidar velocity-azimuth display (VAD) technique. The method is used to obtain the whole wind profile from ground level to the height affected by wind turbines within a utility-scale onshore wind farm, in northern China. Compared with the traditional carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) filter-based quality control method, the proposed data processing method can significantly improve the accuracy of the derived wind. For a 10 m wind speed, an increase in coefficient of determination (R2) from 0.826 to 0.932, and a decrease in mean absolute error (MAE) from 1.231% to 0.927% are obtained; while for 70 m wind speed, R2 increased from 0.926 to 0.958, and MAE decreased from 1.023% to 0.771%. For wind direction, R2 increased from 0.978 to 0.992 at 10 m, and increased from 0.983 to 0.995 at 70 m. The optimized method also presents advantages in improving the accuracy of derived wind under complex wind environments, e.g., inside a wind farm, and increasing the data availability during clear nights. The proposed method could be used to derive wind profiles from below the minimum range of a vertically operating scanning Doppler Lidar to a height affected by wind turbines. Combined with Doppler beam-swinging (DBS) scanning data, the method could be used to obtain the complete wind profile in the boundary layer. These wind profiles could be further used to predict wind power and evaluate the climate and environmental effects of wind farms.

Inter-comparison study of wind measurement between the three-lidar-based virtual tower and four lidars using VAD techniques

ABSTRACT The accurate three-dimensional wind field obtained from a Doppler lidar not only helps to comprehend the refined structure of complex airflow but also provides important and valuable solutions for many fields. However, the underlying homogeneity assumption of the typical wind retrieval methods, such as Doppler Beam Swinging (DBS) and Velocity Azimuth Display (VAD) based on a single-lidar, will introduce the measurement uncertainty in complex terrain. In this paper, a new design of a wind measurement campaign involving seven lidars was carried out, which contained the three-lidar-based Virtual Tower (VT) using a time-space synchronization technique and four single-lidars with different elevation angles. This study investigates the performance of VT and VAD measurements under various conditions and evaluates the sensitivity of wind measurement uncertainty of VAD to the horizontal spatial- and probe volume-average effects associated with elevation angles of the laser beam. The inter-comparison results between VT and four VADs show consistent trends with small relative errors under neutral atmospheric conditions with weak wind velocity. Under convective or high Turbulence Intensity (TI) conditions, the relative errors between VT and VAD become larger and more fluctuant. Moreover, it is found that the measurement uncertainty of VAD increases at a given elevation angle with the increasing measurement heights, which is caused by the horizontal homogeneity associated with the conical scanning area. Additionally, the simulated and measured results of four VADs indicate that a larger elevation angle corresponds to a lower measurement uncertainty for a given height.

Research on attitude correction algorithm for mobile wind lidars

The laser wind measurement technology is remarkable for detecting clear-sky wind fields. The Doppler beam swinging algorithm for wind lidars has been developed to obtain vertical wind profiles based on fixed observation methods. However, the Doppler frequencies are superposed due to the self-motions of lidars caused by carrier motions when lidars are used on motion carrier platforms. Meanwhile, the emission directions of laser beams are uncertain due to changes in carriers’ motion directions and tilts. Thus, a new wind measurement correction model must be studied with lidar attitudes. This study considers the influences of the motion velocities, the carrier’s tilt angles, and the laser beams’ yaw angles at the 0° azimuth angle on the measured results under lidar motions, a correction model of motion attitudes for mobile wind lidars was designed. Sensitivity simulation tests for motion attitude parameters were carried out, and the influences of different attitude parameters of the carrier on the measured results were investigated to evaluate and verify the effects of the correction model. Results indicated that the wind measurement correction model could correct data errors caused by the carrier’s motion and tilts. The motion velocities, carrier directions, and the yaw angles of the laser beams at the 0° azimuth angle had an essential influence on the wind velocity measurements. Besides, the carrier’s pitch angles and the roll angles, which did not influence the wind velocity measurements, only affected the altitudes of the wind field data. Furthermore, the pitch angles exerted more significant influences on the data altitudes than the roll angles.

Multi‐Receiver Augmentation to Advanced Indian MST Radar (AIR)—Implementation of Spaced Antenna Technique

AbstractNewly acquired multi‐receiver capability of Advanced Indian MST radar has been utilized to implement the spaced antenna (SA) technique for profiling of winds and turbulence. Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, in addition to the traditional Full Correlation Analysis (FCA), SA analysis is also performed on off‐vertical beam measurements (hereafter Oblique Spaced Antenna [OSA]) and the products are evaluated against those retrieved with Doppler Beam Swinging (DBS) and collocated GPS radiosonde. In Experiment 2, the dependence of height coverage on antenna aperture is examined. The synchronization and phase matching of receiving channels are found to be well within the designed values. The consensus averaged zonal and meridional wind velocities obtained by FCA and OSA compare very well with DBS and radiosonde measurements with correlation coefficients >0.85 and root mean square error (RMSE) < 2 ms−1. The mean value of antenna parameter, , extracted from correlation of different antenna pairs compare well with the theoretical estimate. The efficacy of in quality controlling the SA derived winds has been examined. Imposing condition has certainly removed several outliers and reduced the RMSE (relative to reference) considerably, but it also reduced useful data by 50%. The consensus averaging of winds is found to be more effective in removing outliers and reducing the RMSE. The wind variances estimated by DBS (after accounting the non‐turbulent contributions) and SA agree quite well with a correlation coefficient of 0.95. Utilization of a bigger array increased the height coverage from 10‐12 to 20 km.

Analysis of Observation Performance of a Mobile Coherent Doppler Wind Lidar Using DBS Scanning Mode

The Coherent Doppler Wind Lidar (CDWL) is one of the important remote sensing devices for atmospheric boundary layer wind field observation, it has broad application prospects in the fields of meteorological monitoring and warning, air pollution transportation and aviation safety. In order to test the observation performance of the CDWL using Doppler beam-swinging (DBS) scanning mode, description of the CDWL is introduced, and the main influencing factors of the CDWL observation accuracy is studied, the comparative observation experiments were carried out at the Anqing National Conventional Sounding Station (30°37″ N, 116°58″ E) during the course of Typhoon Rumbia (No. 18, 2018) from August 16 to August 26, 2018. The results show that: the wind observation accuracy is determined by the carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) of the CDWL. In the precipitation conditions, the effective data acquisition rates of 1.5km and 2.0km detection height are only 46.2% and 38.8%, respectively and it was even difficult to continue operation. Under clear sky conditions, it could operate continuously and the effective data acquisition rates of 1.5km and 2.0km detection height were 85.4% and 64.4%. In addition, the correlation of wind direction and wind speed between the CDWL and the conventional sounding system (L-band secondary wind-finding radar) was 1.041 and 0.982, and the consistency is good. Based on the sounding, the wind direction and wind speed errors of the CDWL during the comparison experiment were 0.82m/s and 9.3°.

Cross-contamination effect on turbulence spectra from Doppler beam swinging wind lidar

Abstract. Turbulence velocity spectra are of high importance for the estimation of loads on wind turbines and other built structures, as well as for fitting measured turbulence values to turbulence models. Spectra generated from reconstructed wind vectors of Doppler beam swinging (DBS) wind lidars differ from spectra based on one-point measurements. Profiling wind lidars have several characteristics that cause these deviations, namely cross-contamination between the three velocity components, averaging along the lines of sight and the limited sampling frequency. This study focuses on analyzing the cross-contamination effect. We sample wind data in a computer-generated turbulence box to predict lidar-derived turbulence spectra for three wind directions and four measurement heights. The data are then processed with the conventional method and with the method of squeezing that reduces the longitudinal separation distances between the measurement locations of the different lidar beams by introducing a time lag into the data processing. The results are analyzed and compared to turbulence velocity spectra from field measurements with a Windcube V2 wind lidar and ultrasonic anemometers as reference. We successfully predict lidar-derived spectra for all test cases and found that their shape is dependent on the angle between the wind direction and the lidar beams. With conventional processing, cross-contamination affects all spectra of the horizontal wind velocity components. The method of squeezing improves the spectra to an acceptable level only for the case of the longitudinal wind velocity component and when the wind blows parallel to one of the lines of sight. The analysis of the simulated spectra described here improves our understanding of the limitations of turbulence measurements with DBS profiling wind lidar.

On the role of anisotropic MF/HF scattering in mesospheric wind estimation

The Saura radar is designed and used to measure winds and electron densities at polar latitudes (69^circ N) within the D region, namely between 50 and 100 km altitude. A relatively narrow radar beam can be generated and steered into distinct pointing directions as a rather large antenna array is used. From the observed radial velocities of the individual pointing directions, the horizontal and vertical wind fields can be obtained using the Doppler beam swinging (DBS) method. With recent upgrades to the radar, the interferometric capabilities are largely improved allowing simultaneous application of different wind estimation techniques now, and also echo localization. In recent studies, Saura DBS winds assuming isotropic scattering were found to be underestimated in comparison with highly reliable winds observed with the MAARSY MST radar in the presence of polar mesospheric summer echoes (PMSE). This underestimation has been investigated by analyzing the scattering positions as well as applying the imaging Doppler interferometry technique. Besides this, Saura winds derived with the classical DBS method seem to be error prone at altitudes above 90 km and even below this altitude for periods of enhanced ionization, e.g., particle precipitations. Various methods taking into account the scattering positions have been used to correct the wind underestimation. These winds are compared to MST radar winds during PMSE, and an optimal combination of these methods for the Saura radar is presented. This combined wind data appears to be reliable; it shows reasonable amplitudes as well as tidal structures for the entire altitude region.

An Inter-Comparison Study of Multi- and DBS Lidar Measurements in Complex Terrain

Wind measurements using classical profiling lidars suffer from systematic measurement errors in complex terrain. Moreover, their ability to measure turbulence quantities is unsatisfactory for wind-energy applications. This paper presents results from a measurement campaign during which multiple WindScanners were focused on one point next to a reference mast in complex terrain. This multi-lidar (ML) technique is also compared to a profiling lidar using the Doppler beam swinging (DBS) method. First- and second-order statistics of the radial wind velocities from the individual instruments and the horizontal wind components of several ML combinations are analysed in comparison to sonic anemometry and DBS measurements. The results for the wind speed show significantly reduced scatter and directional error for the ML method in comparison to the DBS lidar. The analysis of the second-order statistics also reveals a significantly better correlation for the ML technique than for the DBS lidar, when compared to the sonic. However, the probe volume averaging of the lidars leads to an attenuation of the turbulence at high wave numbers. Also the configuration (i.e., angles) of the WindScanners in the ML method seems to be more important for turbulence measurements. In summary, the results clearly show the advantages of the ML technique in complex terrain and indicate that it has the potential to achieve significantly higher accuracy in measuring turbulence quantities for wind-energy applications than classical profiling lidars.

Evaluation of three lidar scanning strategies for turbulence measurements

Abstract. Several errors occur when a traditional Doppler beam swinging (DBS) or velocity–azimuth display (VAD) strategy is used to measure turbulence with a lidar. To mitigate some of these errors, a scanning strategy was recently developed which employs six beam positions to independently estimate the u, v, and w velocity variances and covariances. In order to assess the ability of these different scanning techniques to measure turbulence, a Halo scanning lidar, WindCube v2 pulsed lidar, and ZephIR continuous wave lidar were deployed at field sites in Oklahoma and Colorado with collocated sonic anemometers.Results indicate that the six-beam strategy mitigates some of the errors caused by VAD and DBS scans, but the strategy is strongly affected by errors in the variance measured at the different beam positions. The ZephIR and WindCube lidars overestimated horizontal variance values by over 60 % under unstable conditions as a result of variance contamination, where additional variance components contaminate the true value of the variance. A correction method was developed for the WindCube lidar that uses variance calculated from the vertical beam position to reduce variance contamination in the u and v variance components. The correction method reduced WindCube variance estimates by over 20 % at both the Oklahoma and Colorado sites under unstable conditions, when variance contamination is largest. This correction method can be easily applied to other lidars that contain a vertical beam position and is a promising method for accurately estimating turbulence with commercially available lidars.

Quantifying error of lidar and sodar Doppler beam swinging measurements of wind turbine wakes using computational fluid dynamics

Abstract. Wind-profiling lidars are now regularly used in boundary-layer meteorology and in applications such as wind energy and air quality. Lidar wind profilers exploit the Doppler shift of laser light backscattered from particulates carried by the wind to measure a line-of-sight (LOS) velocity. The Doppler beam swinging (DBS) technique, used by many commercial systems, considers measurements of this LOS velocity in multiple radial directions in order to estimate horizontal and vertical winds. The method relies on the assumption of homogeneous flow across the region sampled by the beams. Using such a system in inhomogeneous flow, such as wind turbine wakes or complex terrain, will result in errors. To quantify the errors expected from such violation of the assumption of horizontal homogeneity, we simulate inhomogeneous flow in the atmospheric boundary layer, notably stably stratified flow past a wind turbine, with a mean wind speed of 6.5 m s−1 at the turbine hub-height of 80 m. This slightly stable case results in 15° of wind direction change across the turbine rotor disk. The resulting flow field is sampled in the same fashion that a lidar samples the atmosphere with the DBS approach, including the lidar range weighting function, enabling quantification of the error in the DBS observations. The observations from the instruments located upwind have small errors, which are ameliorated with time averaging. However, the downwind observations, particularly within the first two rotor diameters downwind from the wind turbine, suffer from errors due to the heterogeneity of the wind turbine wake. Errors in the stream-wise component of the flow approach 30% of the hub-height inflow wind speed close to the rotor disk. Errors in the cross-stream and vertical velocity components are also significant: cross-stream component errors are on the order of 15% of the hub-height inflow wind speed (1.0 m s−1) and errors in the vertical velocity measurement exceed the actual vertical velocity. By three rotor diameters downwind, DBS-based assessments of wake wind speed deficits based on the stream-wise velocity can be relied on even within the near wake within 1.0 m s−1 (or 15% of the hub-height inflow wind speed), and the cross-stream velocity error is reduced to 8% while vertical velocity estimates are compromised. Measurements of inhomogeneous flow such as wind turbine wakes are susceptible to these errors, and interpretations of field observations should account for this uncertainty.

Intercomparison of various SA techniques on wind estimation using multi-receiver phased array radar

In this paper we have applied various spaced antenna (SA) techniques to derive horizontal winds with Middle and Upper (MU) atmospheric radar observations. SA techniques comprise different analysis methods like Full Correlation Analysis (FCA), Cross Correlation Ratio (CCR), Slope at Zero lag (SZL) and Intersection (INT) methods etc. Among these methods, FCA is considered one of the classical approaches. In the present study, the MU radar antenna array is regrouped (in software) into three different antenna segments, each segment consists of 8 channels and forming an equilateral triangle. Grouping of antenna has been done with 4 different orientations by interchanging the channels. FCA wind has been estimated with an equilateral triangle grouping of antenna array in all orientations. With the same grouping in different orientations, winds are estimated with CCR, SZL and INT methods. Winds estimated with different orientation are averaged to obtain the mean winds component. In most of studies reported earlier using CCR, SZL and INT methods, winds have been estimated with pair of antenna having baseline parallel to the antenna array plane. We have retrieved the zonal wind with a pair of antennas having baseline parallel to the antenna array plane in east–west direction and meridional wind is estimated with a pair of antennas having baseline parallel to the antenna array plane in north–south direction. The mean winds obtained with various SA techniques are compared with that observed by the Doppler Beam swinging (DBS) technique and GPS-sonde. It is observed that mean winds obtained with the approach adopted using different spatially distributed array grouping has yielded higher height coverage up to ~20km and in good agreement with the results obtained using DBS observations even with a temporal resolution of ~1.3min in clear air condition. Various statistical analyses like correlation analysis, standard deviation, root mean square error (RMSE) and error analysis have been performed to understand the performance of other techniques in comparison with FCA. The analysis is carried out for an observation of 6h for two different observation periods.

Bias correction and overall performance of a VHF Spaced Antenna boundary layer profiler for operational weather forecasting

Wind profiling radars are now in general use by a number of weather agencies worldwide. These use the Doppler Beam Swinging approach exclusively. The Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology has adopted a Boundary Layer wind profiling radar using the Spaced Antenna technique. This paper describes the performance of these radars and discusses some of the issues that needed to be addressed for appropriate performance in an operational environment, namely the known wind magnitude underestimation. The underestimation was successfully addressed with an empirical correction. Quality control and hardware improvements to minimize internal clutter have been implemented, resulting in largely outlier free wind estimates on presentation to forecasters, and excellent height coverage.

Estimation and Comparison of Horizontal Winds Using Various Spectral Estimation Methods on Profiler Radars

Abstract The lower atmospheric wind profiles are obtained by the postset beam steering (PBS) technique on middle and upper (MU) atmosphere radar data. The Capon beamformer is used to improve the beam synthesizing in the desired directions within the radar transmit beamwidth. From a synthesized beam, the power spectrum is obtained by various spectral estimators, such as Fourier, multiple signal classification (MUSIC), and eigenvector (EV). The wind vector components are derived from radial velocities estimated from the power spectra of synthesized beams. As the reliability of the PBS wind estimate depends on the choice of spectral estimators, a detailed analysis is carried out to compare the performance of estimators in deriving wind profiles on the radar data. The results suggest that EV shows a better performance in deriving possible spectrum parameters and is useful for reliable wind profiling up to the lower stratosphere. The wind profiles derived by PBS with EV are more consistent with near-time observations using GPS sonde and Doppler beam swinging (DBS) methods. The study also suggests that MUSIC cannot be used to reliably estimate atmospheric spectrum parameters.

Improved Performance in Horizontal Wind Estimation Using a Spaced Antenna Drift Technique and Signal Processing Approaches

The middle and upper atmospheric (MU) radar at Shigaraki, Japan, is an excellent system to carry out observation using a spaced antenna (SA) technique. Over several years, numerous scientific studies were reported using SAs. In most of the studies, a SA is used to derive wind information, and the array is divided in to three segments and is grouped with three or six channels to obtain the baselines in the form of an equilateral triangle. In previous work, the wind had been estimated by the SA up to a maximum height of 10-14 km. In general, a SA-based wind estimation could not give good height coverage due to a smaller aperture being used for received signals. In this paper, the observation has been conducted for full-array transmission and reception of signal with 25 receiver channels of the profiler. The receiver channels are divided into three equal segments to form the baselines suitable for deriving horizontal wind vector components using full correlation analysis (FCA). FCA is considered as a conventional SA technique. The identification of receive channels for grouping and its phase centers was critical to obtain the good correlation value and to determine the velocity. The grouping is repeated with four different orientations of the array group. In each case, the wind velocity is estimated. The horizontal wind vector components obtained from all orientations are averaged to obtain mean horizontal wind vector components. The results are compared with the wind velocity estimated using a Doppler beam swinging (DBS) technique and that observed by the GPS sonde. It is observed that the new approach adopted using spatially distributed array grouping has yielded higher height coverage up to 20 km and in good agreement with the results obtained using DBS and GPS-sonde observations with a temporal resolution of 1.3 min in clear air condition.

Evaluation of DBS Wind Measurement Technique in Different Beam Configurations for a VHF Wind Profiler

Abstract Atmospheric winds in the troposphere have been observed routinely for many years with wind profiling (VHF and UHF) radars using the Doppler beam swinging (DBS) technique. Accuracy of wind estimates using wind profiling radars with different beam configurations has its limitations due to both the system of observation and atmospheric conditions. This paper presents a quantitative analysis and evaluation of horizontal wind estimation in different beam configurations up to an altitude of 18 km using the mesosphere–stratosphere–troposphere (MST) radar located in Gadanki, India. Horizontal wind velocities are derived in three different ways using two-, three-, and four-beam configurations. To know the performance of each configuration, radar-derived winds have been compared with the winds obtained by simultaneous GPS sonde balloon measurements, which are considered to be a standard reference by default. Results show that horizontal winds measured using three different beam configurations are comparable in general but discrepancy varies from one beam configuration to the other. It is observed that horizontal winds measured using four-beam configuration (east, west, north, and south) have better estimates than the other two-beam configurations. The standard deviation was found to be varying from 1.4 to 2.5 m s−1 and percentage error is about 9.68%–12.73% in four-beam configuration, whereas in other beam configurations the standard deviation is about 1.65–3.9 m s−1 and the percentage error is about 11.29%–15.16% with reference to GPS sonde balloon–measured winds.

Validation of a new signal processing scheme for the MST radar at Aberystwyth

Abstract. This paper describes a new signal processing scheme for the 46.5 MHz Doppler Beam Swinging wind-profiling radar at Aberystwyth, in the UK. Although the techniques used are similar to those already described in literature – i.e. the identification of multiple signal components within each spectrum and the use of radial- and time-continuity algorithms for quality-control purposes – it is shown that they must be adapted for the specific meteorological environment above Aberystwyth. In particular they need to take into account the three primary causes of unwanted signals: ground clutter, interference, and Rayleigh scatter from hydrometeors under stratiform precipitation conditions. Attention is also paid to the fact that short-period gravity-wave activity can lead to an invalidation of the fundamental assumption of the wind field remaining stationary over the temporal and spatial scales encompassed by a cycle of observation. Methods of identifying and accounting for such conditions are described. The random measurement error associated with horizontal wind components is estimated to be 3.0–4.0 m s−1 for single cycle data. This reduces to 2.0–3.0 m s−1 for data averaged over 30 min. The random measurement error associated with vertical wind components is estimated to be 0.2–0.3 m s−1. This cannot be reduced by time-averaging as significant natural variability is expected over intervals of just a few minutes under conditions of short-period gravity-wave activity.

A Study on Optimum Tilt Angle for Wind Estimation Using Indian MST Radar

Abstract The effect of tilt angle on horizontal wind estimation is studied using Indian mesosphere–stratosphere–troposphere (MST) radar located at Gadanki (13.45°N, 79.18°E). It operates in Doppler beam swinging (DBS) mode with a beamwidth of 3°. Horizontal winds are computed for different tilt angles from 3° to 15° with an increment of 3° from a height range of 3.6–18 km. The effective beam pointing angle (θeff) is calculated to determine the effect of aspect sensitivity on the determination of horizontal wind components. For different tilt angles radar-derived winds are compared with simultaneous GPS sonde wind measurements, which were launched from a nearby site. The first method utilizes direct comparison of radar-derived winds with those of GPS sondes using the actual beam pointing angle; the second method uses the effective beam pointing angle derived from the ratios of two oblique beams. For this study a variety of statistics were explored in terms of standard deviation, correlation coefficient, and percentage error. From the results it is observed that in agreement with previous studies, the effective beam pointing angle deviates from the actual beam pointing angle, which results in the underestimation of horizontal wind components, and also when tilt angle is close to zenith and far from zenith, the estimation of horizontal winds is found to be far from true values at different heights. Radar wind estimation has better agreement with GPS sonde measurement when the off-zenith angle is around 10°. It is also found that correction to the actual beam pointing angle provides 3%–6% improved agreement between the radar and GPS wind measurements.

Effects of Wind Field Inhomogeneities on Doppler Beam Swinging Revealed by an Imaging Radar

Abstract In this work, the accuracy of the Doppler beam-swinging (DBS) technique for wind measurements is studied using an imaging radar—the turbulent eddy profiler (TEP) developed by the University of Massachusetts, with data collected in summer 2003. With up to 64 independent receivers, and using coherent radar imaging (CRI), several hundred partially independent beams can be formed simultaneously within the volume defined by the transmit beam. By selecting a subset of these beams, an unprecedented number of DBS configurations with varying zenith angle, azimuth angle, and number of beams can be investigated. The angular distributions of echo power and radial velocity obtained by CRI provide a unique opportunity to validate the inherent assumption in the DBS method of homogeneity across the region defined by the beam directions. Through comparison with a reference wind field, calculated as the optimal uniform wind field derived from all CRI beams with sufficient signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the accuracy of the wind estimates for various DBS configurations is statistically analyzed. It is shown that for a three-beam DBS configuration, although the validity of the homogeneity assumption is enhanced at smaller zenith angles, the root-mean-square (RMS) error increases because of the ill-conditioned matrix in the DBS algorithm. As expected, inhomogeneities in the wind field produce large bias for the three-beam DBS configuration for large zenith angles. An optimal zenith angle, in terms of RMS error, of approximately 9°–10° was estimated. It is further shown that RMS error can be significantly reduced by increasing the number of off-vertical beams used for the DBS processing.

Characteristics of tropopause folds over Arctic latitudes

Characteristics of tropopause folds over Arctic latitudes have been studied using VHF radar measurements supplemented by balloon measurements. The variation of the radar parameters during the passage of tropopause folds is discussed in detail. To our knowledge, these observations constitute the first spaced antenna (SA) radar measurements during the passage of tropopause folds. This allows us to compare the parameters detectable using this mode with those observed using other configurations, such as the Doppler beam swinging (DBS) technique. In general, the structural characteristics, such as the slope of folds, seem to be similar at Arctic latitudes to that at midlatitudes; however, the height of the tropopause and the axis of the jet stream (and hence the folding) are found to be lower by 1–2 km than their counterparts in midlatitudes. In the case studies the radar‐derived parameters, such as the signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) and vertical shear of horizontal wind, clearly show the upper‐air frontal zone. The frontal circulation, conceived from vertical velocity, including the warm conveyer belt flow and the dry intrusion, is clearly visible in the first case, whereas it is masked by high‐amplitude mountain lee waves in the second case. Further, the frontal zone seems to be acting as a critical layer to mountain lee wave activity by absorbing/filtering the wave activity. The aspect angles derived from the present analysis agree well with those estimated by vertical beam spectral width but are small in comparison with those estimated by the power ratio method. The mean full correlation analysis (FCA) turbulent velocity is estimated using the ESRAD data obtained during the passage of 15 tropopause folds. The mean eddy diffusion coefficients, Kz, near the tropopause and in the upper portion of the fold, where strong turbulence is seen in case studies, are found to be 3.54 and 6.4 m2 s−1, respectively. Utilizing the mean Kz and the mean ozone gradient (obtained from ozonesondes) values, the ozone fluxes across the tropopause and topside of the fold due to turbulence are estimated as 0.71 m s−1 ppbv and 0.32 m s−1 ppbv, respectively. Although the flux across the tropopause is more than that occurring near the fold, the exchange occurring through folds could be more significant to the tropospheric chemical budget.