Terrain Effect on Clouds and Precipitation ? an Educational Campaign APEX19, 1 - 28 May 2019 Wyoming Cloud Radar Status Report Content: WCR configuration Radar Status/Problems General Notes Calibration Notes Other notes Data Files Information ................................................................................ WCR configuration: WCR3 is installed on UW King Air (UWKA) with 3-antenna configuration: Antenna 1 2,4 and polarization capability for Ant. 1. Antenna ports are: Ant1(side/up) - H1, Ant2 (near nadir) - V2, Ant4 (down-fore) - H2; H/V stands for the receiver used (there are 2 receivers). Cross-polarization channels (hxvx and vxhx,where x is 'h' or 'v') valid for Ant1 only. ................................................................................ Radar Status/Problems * Preparation and general status of the radar = no major changes from previous deployment (TECPEC19) * Log: general and for specific flights: = For all flights the Modulator status word is occasionally corrupted caused by an interference ______ May03 = mirror micro switches failed and need to be replaced ................................................................................ General Notes: * Quick look images of reflectivity and Doppler veocity for all the flights are stored on the project WCR web site in their corresponding directories (rfXX_mmmDD) as pdf files. * WCR raw data is archived on a disk array in the UW DAS and a mass storage at NCAR. Quicklooks, dataquality, and calibration data are also archived. Level 1 and Level 2 radar processed data files in NetCDF format are available usually within 2 months after the conclusion of the experiment (preliminary version is generally available during the field campaign). The NetCDF files can be requested via a data request form on the WCR web page (select Data link under User Information). ................................................................................ Calibration notes: **************************************************************************** Power Calibration: * Calibration constants used: see wcr3conf_tecpec19.pro * Notes: 1) The absolute accuracy of the calibration constant for the "up/side" antenna(H1) is estimated to be better than 3 dB. The precision of the calibration from the corner reflector is within 1.5 dB. 2) The accuracy of the calibration constant for the rest of the beams is with respect to H1. The expected added uncertainty is about 1-2 dB. The slanted beam reflectivity uncertainty is expected to be a bit higher than the reflectivity for up, side, and down beams. 3) Cross-channel/antenna isolation: up/side antenna h-pol-to-v-pol is better than 30 dB all other antennas: greater than 50 dB: 4) No receiver saturation is expected from weather target 5) The reflectivity from first two or three rangates may be either slightly undervalued for strong echoes or slightly overvalued for very week echoes; on occasion a small hardware generated interference (spike) may be present in the first few range gates; it is estimated that the absolute error/inteference is no more than 2-3 dB. **************************************************************************** Beam angles calibration: * Unit beam angles(in AC coordinates): use Applanix AV410 (see wcr3conf_apex19.pro) The accuracy of the beam angles for 'up' beam is not known due to lack of calib data. The accuracy of the down beams is better than 0.1 deg King Air maneuvers for beam calibration should be done with the following considerations in mind: = preferred weather conditions: clear air, light to moderate winds = low turbulence at flight level = 3000 ft AGL flight level = 45 deg 2.5 circles in right turn and 2.5 circles in left turn = flat terrain with no ponds/lakes = no precipitation reaching the surface detected by the radar Cloud runs for checking the up beam pointing angles = light winds, deep stratiform clouds and/or very light precip are desirable = 2-3 mins passes in the middle of the cloud or precip = straight and leveled legs with up-dualdown config: -2 legs forth and back along the wind -2 legs forth and back across the wind ................................................................................ Other notes: * WCR data acquisition system (DAQ) records time stamps from an IRIG card which is slaved to the master UWKA data system time server. The recorded time stamps are UTC time using UNIX epoch. * The zero range gate (first data gate) is about 101 m (for 250 ns pulse). The far field for the 12" up/side antenna is 60 m and the far field for the 15" down-slant antenna and 18" down antenna are 91 m and 131 m, respectively. * When maximum unambiguous range is 7.5 km and the aircraft flies AGL close to that range the data can be contaminated from second trip surface echoes. * Antenna Coupling Separation for all non-polarimetric antennas is better than 50 dB, but could be less than the radar dynamic range. Coupling between down and down-aft antenna (leak into the down-aft return) as well as between up and down-aft antenna (leak into the up return) are present for strong targets (mostly surface returns). ................................................................................ WCR Data File Information: ************************************************************************** may03 (tf01, Ed Sigel, Perry Wechsler, Larry Oolman, Min Deng): Total data: 1.5 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 701M wcr-20190503-172157.cpp/250, U,D,D 573M wcr-20190503-174537.cpp/250, U,D,D 30M wcr-20190503-180607.cpp/200, S,D,D mirror switches failed (MSF) 51M wcr-20190503-180732.cpp/200, S,D,D msf, beamcal left turn 180736-180954 61M wcr-20190503-181001.cpp/200, S,D,D msf 50M wcr-20190503-181259.cpp/200, S,D,D msf,beamcal right turn 181301-181507 22M wcr-20190503-181525.cpp/200, S,D,D msf ************************************************************************** may07 (rf01, Ed Sigel, Perry Wechsler, Larry Oolman, Alan John): Total data: 1.2 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 701M wcr-20190507-015816.cpp/250, U,D,D 456M wcr-20190507-022205.cpp/250, U,D,D ************************************************************************** may10 (rf02, Ed Sigel, Perry Wechsler, Larry Oolman, Nick Mahon): Total data: 616 MB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 616M wcr-20190510-034345.cpp/250, U,D,D ************************************************************************** may14 (rf03, Ed Sigel, Perry Wechsler, Larry Oolman, ): Total data: 1.3 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 701M wcr-20190514-031607.cpp/250, U,D,D 562M wcr-20190514-033956.cpp/250, U,D,D ************************************************************************** may17 (rf04, Ed Sigel, Perry Wechsler, Larry Oolman): Total data: 1.3 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 701M wcr-20190517-032104.cpp/250, U,D,D 588M wcr-20190517-034453.cpp/250, U,D,D ************************************************************************** may20 (rf05, Ed Sigel, Perry Wechsler, Larry Oolman): Total data: 1.8 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 701M wcr-20190520-033613.cpp/250, U,D,D 701M wcr-20190520-040002.cpp/250, U,D,D 408M wcr-20190520-042350.cpp/250, U,D,D ************************************************************************** may22 (rf06, Tom Drew, Perry Wechsler, Larry Oolman, Shelby Fuller): Total data: 0 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes The radar was run but the operator did not record the data ************************************************************************** may24 (rf07, Tom Drew, Perry Wechsler, Dave Plummer): Total data: 3.4 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 701M wcr-20190524-030535.cpp/250, U,D,D 701M wcr-20190524-032923.cpp/250, U,D,D 701M wcr-20190524-035312.cpp/250, U,D,D 701M wcr-20190524-041701.cpp/250, U,D,D 666M wcr-20190524-044049.cpp/250, U,D,D ************************************************************************** may28 (rf08, Tom Drew, Perry Wechsler, Dave Plummer): Total data: 1.5 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 701M wcr-20190528-031516.cpp/250, U,D,D 701M wcr-20190528-033905.cpp/250, U,D,D 42M wcr-20190528-040253.cpp/250, U,D,D ************************************************************************** may29 (rf09, Tom Drew, Perry Wechsler, Dave Plummer): Total data: 1.9 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 701M wcr-20190529-031920.cpp/250, U,D,D 701M wcr-20190529-034309.cpp/250, U,D,D 515M wcr-20190529-040658.cpp/250, U,D,D **************************************************************************