Networked weather radar system using coherent on receive technology

• Main Author: Junyent, Francesc
• Language: ENG
• Published: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst 2007
• Subjects: Electrical engineering|Atmosphere
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI3282734

The Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adapting Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) was established to improve the coverage of the lowest portion of the atmosphere through coordinated scanning of low-power, short-range, networked radars (referred to as Distributed Collaborative Adaptive Sensing (DCAS)). The first DCAS technology demonstration test-bed has been deployed in south-west Oklahoma in early 2006: a network of four, low-power, short-range, dual polarization, Doppler radar units, referred to as IPI (after CASA’s Integrated Project 1). This dissertation is devoted to documenting the IP1 system. Special emphasis is placed on the aspects that enable coordinated radar operation and on other features that provide substantial improvements over existing approaches. In particular, the IP1 radar network can sample the atmosphere with high spatio-temporal resolution and at low altitudes. The dual polarization capabilities and simultaneous multiple radar observations of weather phenomena enable the retrieval of enhanced data products including attenuation corrected reflectivity, dual polarization parameters, and vector wind fields. In addition, the modular radar control, data processing, and communications software architecture allows variations in the network topology, control, and weather information extraction, making the extension of the network easy through the addition of potentially heterogeneous radar nodes.