Performance of scanning millimeter-wave radar in a tropical environment

Author

Villa, Jorge M. ; Cruz-Pol, Sandra L. ; Sekelsky, Stephen M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Puerto Rico Univ., Mayaguez, Puerto Rico

Volume

1

fYear

2002

fDate

2002

Firstpage

284

Abstract

The minimum detectable radar reflectivity (dBZemin) is computed for the University of Massachusetts´ 33 GHz/95 GHz Cloud Profiling Radar System (CPRS) under humid tropical conditions. Extinction by water vapor and oxygen are calculated for a horizontally stratified atmosphere as a function of range and scan angle for both radar frequencies. Combined radiosonde and dual-frequency microwave radiometer measurements are used to model radar signal extinction for the Maritime Continent Thunderstorm Experiment (MCTEX), which was conducted in northern Australia. These data are compared with CPRS radar measurements to evaluate the performance of both frequencies for sensing clouds and precipitation versus elevation angle.

Keywords

atmospheric precipitation; atmospheric techniques; clouds; meteorological radar; rain; remote sensing by radar; 33 GHz; 95 GHz; CPRS; Cloud Profiling Radar System; EHF; MCTEX; Maritime Continent Thunderstorm Experiment; University of Massachusetts; cloud; elevation angle; extinction; horizontal stratification; horizontally stratified atmosphere; humid conditions; measurement technique; meteorological radar; millimetric radar; minimum detectable radar reflectivity; mm wave; performance; precipitation; radar remote sensing; rain; range; scan angle; scanning millimeter wave radar; tropical atmosphere; Atmosphere; Atmospheric measurements; Cloud computing; Frequency; Microwave measurements; Microwave radiometry; Millimeter wave radar; Radar detection; Radar measurements; Reflectivity;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2002. IGARSS '02. 2002 IEEE International

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7536-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.2002.1025014

Filename

1025014