Clutter versus radar winds

• Published in: Physics and chemistry of the earth. Part B, Hydrology, oceans and atmosphere Vol. 25; no. 10-12; pp. 1173 - 1178
• Main Author: Seltmann, J.E.E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2000
• ISSN: 1464-1909
• DOI: 10.1016/S1464-1909(00)00174-X

Much attention has been paid to qualitative clutter removal in weather radar images, and some work is in progress to quantify the effect of clutter correction on radar precipitation measurements. The respective impacts on radar wind, however, have been largely neglected in routine work. Viz., ground clutter superimposed on a weather spectrum violates the gaussian assumption of pulse pair processing, leading to a lower signal quality and a bias towards zero in the radar estimate of mean radial velocity. This effect can be counteracted by digital highpass filters in the time or spectral domains. In turn, filtering pure wind spectra spreading beyond zero velocity (e.g., tangential winds) will also deteriorate signal quality and produce a bias towards the folding boundaries. Some aspects of the topic including pros and cons are discussed using calculations based on model and operational radar data.