Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
AMT
Articles | Volume 16, issue 9
Articles | Volume 16, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2381-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2381-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 16, issue 9
Research article
 | 
09 May 2023
Research article |  | 09 May 2023

Calibrating radar wind profiler reflectivity factor using surface disdrometer observations

Christopher R. Williams, Joshua Barrio, Paul E. Johnston, Paytsar Muradyan, and Scott E. Giangrande

Data sets

Radar Wind Profiler (915RWPPRECIPMOM), 2011-03-22 to 2019-08-18, Southern Great Plains (SGP) Central Facility, La- mont, OK (C1), Compiled by Muradyan, P., Atmospheric Radiation Measurement user facility ARM https://doi.org/10.5439/1025128

Radar Wind Profiler (915RWPPRECIPSPEC), 2011-03-22 to 2019-08-18, Southern Great Plains (SGP) Central Facility, Lamont, OK (C1), Compiled by Muradyan, P., Atmospheric Radiation Measurement user facility ARM https://doi.org/10.5439/1025129

Radar Wind Profiler (915RWPWINDMOM), 2014-03-06 to 2019-03-10, Southern Great Plains (SGP) Central Facility, Lamont, OK (C1), Compiled by Muradyan, P., Atmospheric Radiation Measurement user facility ARM https://doi.org/10.5439/1025136

Radar Wind Profiler (915RWPWINDSPEC), 2014-03-06 to 2019-03-10, Southern Great Plains (SGP) Central Facility, Lamont, OK (C1), Compiled by Muradyan, P., Atmospheric Radiation Measurement user facility ARM https://doi.org/10.5439/1025137

Video Disdrometer (VDIS), 2011-03-22 to 2019-08-18, Southern Great Plains (SGP) Central Facility, Lamont, OK (C1), Compiled by Wang, D., Atmospheric Radiation Measurement user facility ARM https://doi.org/10.5439/1025315

Calibrated Radar Wind Profiler (RWP) moments from SGP C. R. Williams https://doi.org/10.5439/1969962

Model code and software

Radar Wind Profiler (RWP): Calculate Spectrum Moments using Python Code Christopher Williams https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7734427

Radar Wind Profiler (RWP): Calculate Spectrum Moments using Python Code Christopher Williams https://github.com/ChristopherRWilliams/RWP_Python_moments

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Short summary
This study uses surface disdrometer observations to calibrate 8 years of 915 MHz radar wind profiler deployed in the central United States in northern Oklahoma. This study had two key findings. First, the radar wind profiler sensitivity decreased approximately 3 to 4 dB/year as the hardware aged. Second, this drift was slow enough that calibration can be performed using 3-month intervals. Calibrated radar wind profiler observations and Python processing code are available on public repositories.
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