Development of a Quality Check Algorithm for the WISE Pulsed Doppler Wind Lidar

Abstract

A quality check algorithm for the Weather Information Service Engine pulsed Doppler wind lidar is developed from a view point of spatial and temporal consistencies of observed wind speed. Threshold values for quality check are determined by statistical analysis on the standard deviation of 3-component of wind speed obtained by a wind lidar, and the vertical gradient of horizontal wind speed obtained by a radiosonde system. The algorithm includes carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) check, data availability check, and vertical gradient of horizontal wind speed check. That is, data sets whose CNR is less than −29 dB, data availability is less than 90%, or vertical gradient of horizontal wind speed is less than −0.028 s −1 or larger than 0.032 s −1 are classified as 'doubtful', and flagged. The developed quality check algorithm is applied to data obtained at Bucheon station for the period from 1 to 30 September 2015. It is found that the number of 'doubtful' data shows maxima around 2000 m high, but the ratio of 'doubtful' to height-total data increases with increasing height due to atmospheric boundary height, cloud, or rainfall, etc. It is also found that the quality check by data availability is more effective than those by carrier to noise ratio or vertical gradient of horizontal wind speed to remove an erroneous noise data.