NASA Dual-frequency Research Articles

Overview of the D3R Observations During the ICE-POP Field Campaign With Emphasis on Snow Studies

The International Collaborative Experiment during the PyeongChang Olympics and Paralympic winter games 2018 took place in the PyeongChang region of South Korea. The main goal of this field campaign was to study winter precipitation in an environment that has complex terrain. The NASA dual-frequency, dual-polarization, Doppler radar (D3R) was calibrated and deployed in this field campaign. The positioning error of the radar was calibrated to be within 0.1°. The D3R was deployed for more than four months and was able to capture many interesting snowfall events along with a few rain events. In this article, the deployment and performance of the D3R during the campaign are discussed. The snowfall events captured by the D3R are discussed in detail to interpret the microphysics from a radar's perspective. The reflectivity–snowfall rate relationship is derived at the Ku band, and the snow accumulation computed is in good agreement with a precipitation gauge that was deployed near the radar. The benefit of the dual-frequency ratio for identifying the precipitation particle types is briefly introduced using the data from a large snow event on 28th February 2018. The vertical profile D3R data for this snow event are studied for detecting the presence of pristine-oriented ice crystals in the mixed hydrometeor phase conditions. Various other instruments, such as X-band radar and disdrometers, were deployed in the campaign. The D3R data are compared with the MxPOL X-band radar, and the reflectivity values match within a couple of dB in the common volume region.

Dual-Frequency Radar Retrievals of Snowfall Using Random Forest

The microphysical parameters of snowfall directly impact hydrological and atmospheric models. During the International Collaborative Experiment hosted at the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (ICE-POP 2018), dual-frequency radar retrievals of particle size distribution (PSD) parameters were produced and assessed over complex terrain. The NASA Dual-frequency Dual-polarized Doppler Radar (D3R) and a collection of second-generation Particle Size and Velocity (PARSIVEL2) disdrometer observations were used to develop retrievals. The conventional look-up table method (LUT) and random forest method (RF) were applied to the disdrometer data to develop retrievals for the volume-weighted mean diameter (Dm), the shape factor (mu), the normalized intercept parameter (Nw), the ice water content (IWC), and the snowfall rate (S). Evaluations were performed between the D3R radar and disdrometer observations using these two methods. The mean errors of the retrievals based on the RF method were small compared with those of the LUT method. The results indicate that the RF method is a promising way of retrieving microphysical parameters, because this method does not require any assumptions about the PSD of snowfall.

Interpulse Frequency Diversity System for Second-Trip Suppression and Retrieval in a Weather Radar

AbstractA new interpulse frequency diverse technique is introduced for weather radar second-trip suppression and retrieval. Interpulse coding is widely used for second-trip suppression or cross-polarization isolation. Here, a new interpulse scheme is discussed, taking advantage of frequency diverse waveforms. The simulations and performance tests are evaluated, keeping in mind NASA dual-frequency, dual-polarization, Doppler radar (D3R). A new method is discussed to recover velocity and spectral width despite the incoherence in samples due to the change of frequency from pulse to pulse. This technique can recover the weather radar moments over a much higher dynamic range of the second-trip contamination than the popular interpulse phase codes, for second-trip suppression and retrieval under specific phase noise conditions. And it has a bigger recovery region of second-trip velocity if the region is drawn with increasing spectral width (compared to other interpulse codes).

Performance Evaluations of Rain Microphysical Retrieval Using Gpm Dual-Wavelength Radar by Way of Comparison With the Self-Consistent Numerical Method

The primary concern of this paper is to evaluate the accuracy of drop size distribution (DSD) retrievals for the rain region using global precipitation measurement (GPM) dual-frequency precipitation radar (DPR). Direct comparison between ground and spaceborne radar might answer the question, but unfortunately, this is a difficult and challenging task that can result in largely unmeasurable uncertainty. In this paper, the self-consistent numerical method (SNM) was used to estimate microphysical parameters along rain profiles. The assessment of the SNM performance characterizes its accuracy in the microphysics retrieval. It follows that the profile data set used for the evaluation plays an important role in this process. The ideal solution would be to use real conditions. For this purpose, a new approach for providing vertical profiles closer to the natural vertical variability of rainfall microphysical characteristics and its global vertical structure can be derived from the observations of NASA dual-frequency, dual-polarization, Doppler radar (D3R)—a matched-beam, $\textit {Ku}$ - and $\textit {Ka}$ -band dual-frequency radar that is similar to the precipitation radar (DPR) on board the GPM core satellite. The profile data set was generated using reflectivity measurements collected in RHI mode, after correcting them for attenuation using the polarimetric measurements of the $\textit {Ku}$ -band. With this data set, the behavior of SNM is evaluated in the presence of the inaccuracy introduced by taking the constant value of $\mu $ and the measurement errors. The entire version 4 of the GPM DPR precipitation products obtained with data collected from September 1, 2014 to February 28, 2017 was used. In the presence of bright-band features, the rain region of matched scans, for which measurements were simultaneously collected by $\textit {Ku}$ - and $\textit {Ka}$ -band radars, was employed to retrieve DSD parameters with SNM and GPM algorithms. A direct comparison between the two procedures was performed in terms of merit factors. The results show a significant difference between the performance of the two methods by not taking into consideration the SNM procedures that, instead, are being performed by the GPM algorithms.

Real-Time Noise Estimation and Correction in Dual-Polarization Radar Systems

Accurate noise-power estimation in dual-polarization weather radar is necessary for the correction of all power-based moments in low signal-to-noise ratio environments. A method of real-time noise-power estimation for dual-polarization radar systems using copolar correlation and receiver power is introduced. This real-time noise-power estimation algorithm is implemented in the NASA dual-frequency dual-polarization Doppler radar, and the performance results are presented.

Overview of the D3R Observations during the IFloodS Field Experiment with Emphasis on Rainfall Mapping and Microphysics

Abstract The NASA dual-frequency, dual-polarization Doppler radar (D3R) was deployed as part of the GPM Iowa Flood Studies (IFloodS) ground validation field campaign from 1 May through 15 June 2013. The D3R participated in a multi-instrument targeted investigation of convective initiation and hydrological response in the midwestern United States. An overview of the D3R’s calibration and observations is presented. A method for attenuation correction of Ka-band observations using Ku-band results is introduced. Dual-frequency ratio estimates in stratiform rain and ice are presented and compared with theoretical values. Ku-band quantitative precipitation estimation results are validated against IFloodS ground instruments.

Polarimetric Variables Retrieval with Clutter Suppression for Staggered PRT Sequences

AbstractThis paper presents a procedure to filter ground clutter from dual-polarized staggered pulse repetition time (PRT) radar data in simultaneous and alternating transmission modes for polarimetric variables retrieval. The filter is designed in the time domain so that polarimetric variables such as the differential phase () and the copolar correlation coefficient () can be estimated directly from clutter-filtered time series data using a conventional method. In the case of the simultaneous mode, a single filter is used for both channels to maintain the signal correlation after filtering. For the alternating mode, because the polarizations are transmitted in different waveforms, two separate filters are required. However, the filters are designed so that the responses of the filters to the signals are identical within the extended Doppler range. Based on radar simulation, it is shown that the method can provide accurate retrieval of polarimetric variables even in the case of strong clutter contamination. Also, the performance of the method is illustrated on dual-polarized staggered PRT ⅔ data from the NASA dual-frequency dual-polarized Doppler radar (D3R).