peakTree: a framework for structure-preserving radar Doppler spectra analysis

Radenz, Martin; Bühl, Johannes; Seifert, Patric; Griesche, Hannes; Engelmann, Ronny

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4813-2019

Articles | Volume 12, issue 9

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4813-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Arctic mixed-phase clouds as studied during the ACLOUD/PASCAL...

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4813-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 9

Research article

|

10 Sep 2019

Research article |

| 10 Sep 2019

peakTree: a framework for structure-preserving radar Doppler spectra analysis

Martin Radenz, Johannes Bühl, Patric Seifert, Hannes Griesche, and Ronny Engelmann

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Final revised paper (published on 10 Sep 2019)
Preprint (discussion started on 22 Mar 2019)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'Review: Radenz et al., A framework for structure-preserving radar Doppler spectra analysis', Anonymous Referee #1, 29 Apr 2019
- AC1: 'Reply to both Referees', Martin Radenz, 16 Jul 2019
RC2: 'Review of “peakTree: A framework for structure-preserving radar Doppler spectra analysis” by M. Radenz et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 10 May 2019
- AC1: 'Reply to both Referees', Martin Radenz, 16 Jul 2019

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Martin Radenz on behalf of the Authors (16 Jul 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (19 Jul 2019) by Matthew Shupe

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (30 Jul 2019)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

I thank the authors for carefully addressing all my questions and comments. The manuscript has significantly improved and I have only a few specific comments and corrections to add before I can recommend it for publication.

Minor:
P.3, L. 7: “The pulse repetition frequency was 5kHz and one Doppler spectrum was based on the fast Fourier transform of 256 pulses, yielding a Doppler resolution of 0.082ms^-1 (Tab. 1).” This sentence is maybe a bit misleading: You generate one raw Doppler spectrum based on 256 pulses. As you say a few sentences later, the actual spectrum stored and the one which is analyzed in your study is an average over 195 raw spectra. Thus, I suggest to write “raw spectra” in this sentence to make the difference to the final spectra more clear.

P.3, L.20: Why is the polarization leakage problem even more relevant for spectral LDR? Also later in L. 25: Are you requiring the spectrum in linear units to be a factor of 3 larger than the noise or does it relate to the dB space? Why factor of 3 and not 10? Is that based on previous studies or did you do your own sensitivity study using different thresholds and comparing the total LDR?

P.5, L.6: “A minimum is skipped, if the prominence of either of its subpeaks is less than 1dB” In Table 2 it says that “prom.” has units of dBZ. Since it is defined as a difference, dB seems to be right.

P.5, L.10 (also P.7, L.4): “Reflectivity factor Z” should be Ze especially if you look at ice clouds.

Section 4.1: I think you should mention in the beginning of this section that this particular case has been extensively analyzed in Kalesse et al.2016 and that the reader can find there even more detailed information.

Typos:
Abstract, L.8: “particle populations Arctic multi-layered” probably an “in” missing?

Abstract, L. 9: Programs’ BAECC (?)

P.7, L.17: rule is based on (?)

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RR by Maximilian Maahn (10 Aug 2019)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (11 Aug 2019) by Matthew Shupe

AR by Martin Radenz on behalf of the Authors (13 Aug 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (14 Aug 2019) by Matthew Shupe

AR by Martin Radenz on behalf of the Authors (15 Aug 2019) Author's response Manuscript

Short summary

Clouds may be composed of more than one particle population even at the smallest scales. Cloud radar observations can contain information on multiple particle species, showing up as distinct peaks and subpeaks in the Doppler spectrum. We propose the use of binary tree structures to recursively structure these peaks. Two case studies from different locations and instruments illustrate how this approach can be used to disentangle particle populations in multilayered mixed-phase clouds.