High resolution FMCW Doppler radar FALCON-I for W-band meteorological observations

A Cloud profiling FMCW (Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave) Doppler radar named FALCON-I at 95GHz is developed at Chiba University. It consists of two 1m-diameter antennas and has high spatial resolution of 0.18 degree FWHM. A High range resolution of 15m is realized with the FMCW type radar, which is about 10 times higher than that of normal pulse type radars. Output power of FALCON-I is as small as 0.5W, and, therefore, it is realized with solid state components without any tubes. Although its small output power, FALCON-I has good sensitivities of -32 dBZ at the distance of 5 km to observe thin clouds at high altitude and has high resolution in Doppler measurements. Using FALCON-I, we observed clouds at Chiba, Cape Hedo, Okinawa, and on cruises on MIRAI, Japanese scientific research vessel, on various oceans in the last several years. These results will be useful to investigate characteristics of clouds in various places and oceans in order to make global model of atmosphere.