Identifying insects, clouds, and precipitation using vertically pointing polarimetric radar Doppler velocity spectra

Williams, Christopher R.; Johnson, Karen L.; Giangrande, Scott E.; Hardin, Joseph C.; Öktem, Ruşen; Romps, David M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4425-2021

Articles | Volume 14, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4425-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4425-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 6

Research article

|

16 Jun 2021

Research article |

| 16 Jun 2021

Identifying insects, clouds, and precipitation using vertically pointing polarimetric radar Doppler velocity spectra

Christopher R. Williams, Karen L. Johnson, Scott E. Giangrande, Joseph C. Hardin, Ruşen Öktem, and David M. Romps

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4425-2021-supplement

Data sets

Ka ARM Zenith Radar (KAZRSPECCMASKMDCOPOL) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility https://doi.org/10.5439/1095603

Ka ARM Zenith Radar (KAZRSPECCMASKMDXPOL) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility https://doi.org/10.5439/1095604

KAZRMASKS: KAZR hydrometeor and insect masks C. R. Williams https://doi.org/10.5439/1772490

Short summary

In addition to detecting clouds, vertically pointing cloud radars detect individual insects passing over head. If these insects are not identified and removed from raw observations, then radar-derived cloud properties will be contaminated. This work identifies clouds in radar observations due to their continuous and smooth structure in time, height, and velocity. Cloud masks are produced that identify cloud vertical structure that are free of insect contamination.