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- Author or Editor: D. E. Wolfe x
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Abstract
An experiment comparing balloon and profiler observations was carried out to evaluate the capability of Doppler radar wind profilers to remotely measure useful meteorological quantities other than wind. The site chosen was in Southern California during a time of year when it offers a natural laboratory for investigating extreme contrasts in temperature and humidity. To evaluate the new capabilities, it was found that new and additional treatment of the radar data was necessary. For example, the adequacy of the usual radar wind observations obtained by editing the Doppler spectral moments was found to be very questionable for short-term observations, so the authors extended the editing to the raw spectra, and substantial improvement was found. The advantages of the redundancy in five-beam systems are investigated and are also found to be very necessary to obtain the accuracy needed. A technique for minimizing the variances of the differences of the four redundant pairs of radials is described. The resulting improved vertical velocity estimates substantially improve the agreement between radio acoustic sounding system (RASS) temperature retrievals and balloon-measured temperatures. The ability of the profilers to measure turbulence intensity was tested, and the accuracy of techniques using the spectral width to measure turbulent dissipation rate when complicated spectra are present is examined. Two different techniques for optimizing the calculation of spectral width are compared and the errors assessed. One technique integrates over the uncontaminated range of the chosen spectral peak and then extrapolates a Gaussian function to infinity. The other method uses the slope of the log least squares best fit of the uncontaminated points to a Gaussian function. Profiler-measured length scales of wind and scalar quantities are measured and compared. Profiles of radar-measured gradients of refractive index are compared with gradients measured by balloon. It is shown how gradients of humidity can be calculated to about the same accuracy as refractive-index gradients by combining the temperature gradients from RASS with the refractive-index gradient observations from the radar.
Abstract
An experiment comparing balloon and profiler observations was carried out to evaluate the capability of Doppler radar wind profilers to remotely measure useful meteorological quantities other than wind. The site chosen was in Southern California during a time of year when it offers a natural laboratory for investigating extreme contrasts in temperature and humidity. To evaluate the new capabilities, it was found that new and additional treatment of the radar data was necessary. For example, the adequacy of the usual radar wind observations obtained by editing the Doppler spectral moments was found to be very questionable for short-term observations, so the authors extended the editing to the raw spectra, and substantial improvement was found. The advantages of the redundancy in five-beam systems are investigated and are also found to be very necessary to obtain the accuracy needed. A technique for minimizing the variances of the differences of the four redundant pairs of radials is described. The resulting improved vertical velocity estimates substantially improve the agreement between radio acoustic sounding system (RASS) temperature retrievals and balloon-measured temperatures. The ability of the profilers to measure turbulence intensity was tested, and the accuracy of techniques using the spectral width to measure turbulent dissipation rate when complicated spectra are present is examined. Two different techniques for optimizing the calculation of spectral width are compared and the errors assessed. One technique integrates over the uncontaminated range of the chosen spectral peak and then extrapolates a Gaussian function to infinity. The other method uses the slope of the log least squares best fit of the uncontaminated points to a Gaussian function. Profiler-measured length scales of wind and scalar quantities are measured and compared. Profiles of radar-measured gradients of refractive index are compared with gradients measured by balloon. It is shown how gradients of humidity can be calculated to about the same accuracy as refractive-index gradients by combining the temperature gradients from RASS with the refractive-index gradient observations from the radar.
Abstract
The design, construction, and first results are presented of a 915-MHz Doppler wind profiler that may be mounted on a moving platform such as a mobile land vehicle, ocean buoy, or a ship. The long dwell times in multiple beam directions, required for the detection of weak atmospheric radar echoes, are obtained by a passive phased array antenna, controlled by a motion control and monitoring (MCM) computer that acquires platform motion measurements and compensates in real time for the platform rotations. The platform translational velocities are accounted for in the signal processing system (SPS) before the calculation of the wind velocity profiles. The phased array antenna, MCM, and SPS are described, and radar-derived wind profiles are compared with those from rawinsonde balloons released during the first test cruise of the system, as the NOAA R/V Ronald H. Brown performed ship maneuvers.
Abstract
The design, construction, and first results are presented of a 915-MHz Doppler wind profiler that may be mounted on a moving platform such as a mobile land vehicle, ocean buoy, or a ship. The long dwell times in multiple beam directions, required for the detection of weak atmospheric radar echoes, are obtained by a passive phased array antenna, controlled by a motion control and monitoring (MCM) computer that acquires platform motion measurements and compensates in real time for the platform rotations. The platform translational velocities are accounted for in the signal processing system (SPS) before the calculation of the wind velocity profiles. The phased array antenna, MCM, and SPS are described, and radar-derived wind profiles are compared with those from rawinsonde balloons released during the first test cruise of the system, as the NOAA R/V Ronald H. Brown performed ship maneuvers.
Abstract
Winds measured with 915- and 404-MHz wind profilers are frequently found to have nonrandom errors as large as 15 m s−1 when compared to simultaneously measured rawinsonde winds. Detailed studies of these errors which occur only at night below about 4 km in altitude and have a pronounced seasonal pattern, indicate that they are due to the wind profilers' detection of migrating songbirds (passerines). Characteristics of contaminated data at various stages of data processing are described, including raw time series, individual spectra, averaged spectra, 30- or 60-s moments, 3- or 6-min winds, and hourly averaged winds. An automated technique for the rejection of contaminated data in historical datasets, based on thresholding high values of rnoment-level reflectivity and spectral width, is shown to be effective. Techniques designed for future wind profiter data acquisition systems are described that show promise for rejecting bird echoes, with the additional capability of being able to retrieve the true wind velocity in many instances. Finally, characteristics of bird migration revealed by wind profilers are described, including statistics of the spring (March–May) 1993 migration season determined from the 404-MHz Wind Profiler Demonstration Network (WPDN). During that time, contamination of moment data occurred on 43% of the nights monitored.
Abstract
Winds measured with 915- and 404-MHz wind profilers are frequently found to have nonrandom errors as large as 15 m s−1 when compared to simultaneously measured rawinsonde winds. Detailed studies of these errors which occur only at night below about 4 km in altitude and have a pronounced seasonal pattern, indicate that they are due to the wind profilers' detection of migrating songbirds (passerines). Characteristics of contaminated data at various stages of data processing are described, including raw time series, individual spectra, averaged spectra, 30- or 60-s moments, 3- or 6-min winds, and hourly averaged winds. An automated technique for the rejection of contaminated data in historical datasets, based on thresholding high values of rnoment-level reflectivity and spectral width, is shown to be effective. Techniques designed for future wind profiter data acquisition systems are described that show promise for rejecting bird echoes, with the additional capability of being able to retrieve the true wind velocity in many instances. Finally, characteristics of bird migration revealed by wind profilers are described, including statistics of the spring (March–May) 1993 migration season determined from the 404-MHz Wind Profiler Demonstration Network (WPDN). During that time, contamination of moment data occurred on 43% of the nights monitored.
