Agile-Beam Phased Array Radar for Weather Observations

Zrnić, Dúsan S.; Kimpel, James F.; Forsyth, Douglas E.; Shapiro, Alan; Crain, G.; Ferek, Ronald J.; Heimmer, J.; Benner, William; McNellis, Tom; Vogt, Richard J.

doi:10.1175/bams-88-11-1753

Cited by 234 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Significant efforts should also be made to use clear-air radial velocity observations, while the valuable information contained in polarimetric radar measurements on the nature of radar targets should be exploited for improved data quality control. The deployment of gap-filling radars can help improve the in-storm observations by significantly improving radar data coverage in the low-levels of the atmosphere and in mountainous regions (e.g., Xue et al 2006), whereas fast-scanning phased-array radars can help provide much more frequent in-storm observations (Zrnic et al 2007).…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convective-Scale Warn-on-Forecast System

Stensrud

Xue

Wicker

et al. 2009

Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc.

336

163

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Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convective-Scale Warn-on-Forecast System

Stensrud

Xue

Wicker

et al. 2009

Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc.

336

163

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“…Finally, the third method of Richardson number estimation will make use of previous studies' laboratory findings which relate KHI characteristics to Richardson number [37]. In recent years, phased-array weather radar systems have become increasingly commonplace, as attention has been drawn to advantages gained by use of beam multiplexing and agile beam steering [43][44][45][46][47]. This study makes use of the AIR, an X-band phased-array imaging radar designed and built by faculty, staff, and students at the University of Oklahoma Advanced Radar Research Center (OU ARRC) [48].…”

Section: Data Collection and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observations of a Cold Front at High Spatiotemporal Resolution Using an X-Band Phased Array Imaging Radar

Mahre

Palmer

et al. 2017

Atmosphere

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While the vertical structure of cold fronts has been studied using various methods, previous research has shown that traditional methods of observing meteorological phenomena (such as pencil-beam radars in PPI/volumetric mode) are not well-suited for resolving small-scale cold front phenomena, due to relatively low spatiotemporal resolution. Additionally, non-simultaneous elevation sampling within a vertical cross-section can lead to errors in analysis, as differential vertical advection cannot be distinguished from temporal evolution. In this study, a cold front from 19 September 2015 is analyzed using the Atmospheric Imaging Radar (AIR). The AIR transmits a 20-degree fan beam in elevation, and digital beamforming is used on receive to generate simultaneous receive beams. This mobile, X-band, phased-array radar offers temporal sampling on the order of 1 s (while in RHI mode), range sampling of 30 m (37.5 m native resolution), and continuous, arbitrarily oversampled data in the vertical dimension. Here, 0.5-degree sampling is used in elevation (1-degree native resolution). This study is the first in which a cold front has been studied via imaging radar. The ability of the AIR to obtain simultaneous RHIs at high temporal sampling rates without mechanical steering allows for analysis of features such as Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities and feeder flow.

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“…The NWRT (The National Weather Radar Testbed) phased array radar (PAR) has demonstrated the estimation of accurate Doppler velocity and reflectivity in ground-based configuration in a single polarization mode (Forsyth et al, 2006;Weber et al, 2007;Zrnic et al, 2007). Recent NWRT measurements showed the phased array radar's ability to reduce scan time at least by a factor of 2 by rapidly steering the beam to a set of spatially diverse pointing angles using beam multiplexing (Yu et al, 2007).…”

Section: Engineering Rationale For Next Generation Airborne Radarmentioning

confidence: 99%

The next generation airborne polarimetric Doppler weather radar

Vivekanandan

Lee

Loew

et al. 2014

Geosci. Instrum. Method. Data Syst.

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Abstract.Results from airborne field deployments emphasized the need to obtain concurrently high temporal and spatial resolution measurements of 3-D winds and microphysics. A phased array radar on an airborne platform using dual-polarization antenna has the potential for retrieving high-resolution, collocated 3-D winds and microphysical measurements. Recently, ground-based phased array radar (PAR) has demonstrated the high time-resolution estimation of accurate Doppler velocity and reflectivity of precipitation and clouds when compared to mechanically scanning radar. PAR uses the electronic scanning (e-scan) to rapidly collect radar measurements. Since an airborne radar has a limited amount of time to collect measurements over a specified sample volume, the e-scan will significantly enhance temporal and spatial resolution of airborne radar observations. At present, airborne weather radars use mechanical scans, and they are not designed for collecting dual-polarization measurements to remotely estimate microphysics. This paper presents a possible configuration of a novel airborne phased array radar (APAR) to be installed on an aircraft for retrieving improved dynamical and microphysical scientific products. The proposed APAR would replace the aging, Xband Electra Doppler radar (ELDORA). The ELDORA Xband radar's penetration into precipitation is limited by attenuation. Since attenuation at C-band is lower than at Xband, the design specification of a C-band airborne phased array radar (APAR) and its measurement accuracies are presented. Preliminary design specifications suggest the proposed APAR will meet or exceed ELDORA's current sensitivity, spatial resolution and Doppler measurement accuracies of ELDORA and it will also acquire dual-polarization measurements.

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Agile-Beam Phased Array Radar for Weather Observations

Abstract: Electronic beam steering enables multimission phased array radar to rapidly and adaptively survey the atmosphere while detecting the tracking aircraft.

Cited by 234 publications

References 40 publications

Convective-Scale Warn-on-Forecast System

Convective-Scale Warn-on-Forecast System

Observations of a Cold Front at High Spatiotemporal Resolution Using an X-Band Phased Array Imaging Radar

The next generation airborne polarimetric Doppler weather radar

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