Doppler Weather Radar Research and Development
NSSL Project 8 – Investigation into the use of Phased Array Radar Technology for Improving Hazardous Weather Detection and Warnings:
Signal Processing Upgrades for the National Weather Radar Testbed
Funding Type: CIMMS Task II
Objectives
Create a modern and improved multi-processor/multi-computer signal processing
environment for the NWRT phased array radar.
Accomplishments
The National Weather Radar Testbed (NWRT) was established to demonstrate
the potential to simultaneously perform aircraft tracking, wind profiling,
and weather surveillance within a multi-mission phased-array radar
(MPAR). Since its inception in September 2003, the NWRT system has
undergone an extensive engineering evaluation and numerous hardware
and software upgrades. However, in spite of significant engineering
work, the real-time signal processing functionality currently implemented
in the PAR is limited. Even with these limitations, several research
experiments have successfully demonstrated many of the unique advantages
of using phase-array technology in the context of weather observation.
A modern and improved multi-processor/multi-computer signal processing
environment will allow the implementation of new and advanced real-time
signal processing techniques that will provide researchers and users
with an optimum platform for demonstrating and evaluating the MPAR
concept.
The first part of this project is underway and consists of implementing the Staggered PRT (SPRT) algorithm on the PAR. We successfully completed the initial stages which involved creating and testing scanning strategies using staggered PRT sampling, defining the SPRT algorithm and prototyping it for its real-time implementation. This project will continue and will be followed by the real-time implementation of other very interesting evolutionary signal processing techniques. These include schemes to effectively remove clutter contamination from meteorological signals, methods to mitigate range and velocity ambiguities, and techniques that allow for faster data collection.
This project is ongoing.
Publications
Torres, S. M., C. D. Curtis, E. Forren, and D. Priegnitz, 2008: Signal
processing upgrades for the National Weather Radar Testbed. Preprints,
23rd International Conf. on Interactive Information
and Processing Systems (IIPS) for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology, New Orleans, LA,
Amer. Meteor. Soc.