Airborne Phased Array Polarimetric Doppler Weather Radar
Dr. Jothiram “Vivek” Vivekanandan
NCAR
NCAR/EOL is investigating potential configurations for the next generation airborne phased array radar (APAR) that is capable of retrieving dynamic and microphysical characteristics of clouds and precipitation. Phased array radar (PAR) is composed of an array of solid-state, low power transmit and receive (T/R) modules. Each T/R module is composed of highpower amplifier, low-noise amplifier, phase shifter and variable attenuator. PAR uses relative phase of T/R elements for scanning the radar beam electronically (e-scan). Amplitude tapering of the receive signals is used for adjusting gain and side-lobe levels of the received beam. This presentation will introduce the PAR concept. PAR uses e-scan to rapidly collect radar measurements. Since airborne radar has a limited amount of time to collect measurements over a specified sample volume, the e-scan will significantly enhance the temporal and spatial resolution of airborne radar observations. At present, airborne weather radars use mechanical scan, and they are not designed for collecting dual-polarimetric radar measurements to remotely estimate microphysics. PAR eliminates this restriction. A possible configuration of APAR, as proposed for NCAR’s C-130 aircraft, is presented.
Seminar Webcast at: http://www.fin.ucar.edu/it/mms/fl-live.htm
Tuesday March 14, 2017
3:30 - 4:30 PM
3450 Mitchell Lane Boulder, CO
FL2-1022 Large Auditorium
