New products from radar wind profilers
Authors
Edwin Campos — Argonne National Laboratory
Scott Matthew Collis — Argonne National Laboratory
Richard L. Coulter — Argonne National Laboratory
Jonathan Helmus — Argonne National Laboratory
Category
Instruments
Description
The operation of an ARM radar wind profiler (UHF, 915 MHz) has been reconfigured (optimized) during the spring of 2012 to facilitate studies relevant to both planetary boundary layer (PBL) and precipitation physics (PR). New data products are being generated based on two modes of profiler radar operation. The PBL mode consists of a sequence of vertical and oblique beams for both short and long pulses, and the PR mode consists of a sequence of vertical-only short and long pulses. The PBL mode (estimated temporal resolution of 2 minute) observations are used to produce estimates of boundary-layer top heights, profiles of turbulent kinetic energy, and profiles of horizontal wind magnitude and direction. Initial results for boundary-layer estimates are presented over the ARM Southern Great Plains site (C1 profiler), in comparison with radiosonde-based estimates at the site.The PR mode (estimated temporal resolution 12–14 seconds) observations will be used soon to produce calibrated radar reflectivities, unfolded Doppler velocity, spectral width, radar receiver noise time series, and calibration constant in an auxiliary datastream file.