Implementation of A Small Regional Radar Volume From The WSR-88D Doppler Radar Network

Abstract

The Forecast Systems Laboratory (FSL) is developing a Regional Radar Volume (RRV) initially using three WSR-88D radars primarily surrounding the northeast region of Colorado. Data from these radars are being collected in real time and combined to create full three-dimensional volumes of reflectivity and Doppler winds. The RRV data will be used as input for operational mesoscale numerical models as well as for displayable products for forecaster workstations. The initial design for the RRV used a combination of on-site processing and central processing to create RRV products (Roberts et al., 1995). On-site processing included velocity dealiasing and remapping the data to a common Cartesian grid. Remapping reduces the volume of data for transmission to a central facility and data can be easily combined with data from other radars. At the central, facility data from the radars are combined, and U/V winds can be calculated where multiple Doppler data are available. Roberts and MacDonald (1994) explored the feasibility of retrieving horizontal (u/v) winds from areas scanned by multiple WSR-88D radars. This work indicated that overlapping scanning areas in the network were sufficient to retrieve u/v winds over a large percentage (~40%) of the CONUS area.