Airborne Radar Measurements of Wildfire Plume Dynamics RadFIRE(radfire16) August-September 2016 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 of the radar = power splitter/coupler (13.7) output to Vs (Vscope) is attenuated by 7dB more than the its output to V (IF V to RDx); it is not used (should not be used) for routing the IF Vch to RDx * Log: general and for specific flights: = For all flights the Modulator status word is occasionally corrupted caused by an interference ______ Aug 18 = wcr_display caused server crashes - fixed with a new wcr_display and radar server software update = running wcr_display via ssh connection is too slow and hangs the wcr web control page and kills the software serve - the work around is to use vnxserver/vncviewer to run wcr_display; since wcr_display does not work from ermine - the client Linux machine, we currently are running vnc and the display from ferret (the same is true for kpr) ................................................................................ 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_pacmice16.pro = Jun 02 - CR calibration from positioner lined up with the hangar door = Jun 03 - CR calibration from positioner lined up with the hangar door = Jul 29 - CR calibration from King Air on the LAR ramp * 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_pacmice16.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 86 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: ************************************************************************** aug29a (rf01, Drew,Kingsmill,Guy,Heesen): Berry Fire, WY Total data: 353 MB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 98M wcr-20160829-191656.cpp/250, D Tx is OFF (~14 mins) 43M wcr-20160829-193006.cpp/250, D Tx is OFF ( ~5 mins) ************************************************************************** aug29b (rf02, Drew,Kingsmill,Guy,Heesen): Pioneer Fire, ID Total data: 3.8 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 128M wcr-20160829-224106.cpp/250, D 1.6M wcr-20160829-225819.cpp/250, D 84M wcr-20160829-225901.cpp/250, D 501M wcr-20160829-225901.cpp/250, U,D 104M wcr-20160829-232934.cpp/250, U,D 216M wcr-20160829-233731.cpp/250, U,D,D 421M wcr-20160829-234451.cpp/250, U,D,D 40M wcr-20160829-235909.cpp/250, U,D,D 145M wcr-20160830-000030.cpp/250, U,D,D 124M wcr-20160830-000524.cpp/250, U,D,D 292M wcr-20160830-000936.cpp/250, U,D,D 170M wcr-20160830-001931.cpp/250, U,D,D 99M wcr-20160830-002516.cpp/250, U,D,D 131M wcr-20160830-002837.cpp/250, U,D,D 263M wcr-20160830-003304.cpp/250, U,D,D 126M wcr-20160830-004159.cpp/250, U,D,D 175M wcr-20160830-004614.cpp/250, U,D,D 191M wcr-20160830-005210.cpp/250, U,D,D 389M wcr-20160830-005839.cpp/250, U,D,D 345M wcr-20160830-011151.cpp/250, U,D,D 113M wcr-20160830-012334.cpp/250, U,D,D ************************************************************************** aug30a (rf03, Drew,Kingsmill,Guy,Heesen): Pioneer Fire, ID Total data: 5.3 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 168M wcr-20160830-164403.cpp/250, U,D,D 294M wcr-20160830-164945.cpp/250, U,D,D 363M wcr-20160830-165944.cpp/250, U,D,D 201M wcr-20160830-171203.cpp/250, U,D,D 214M wcr-20160830-171853.cpp/250, U,D,D 251M wcr-20160830-172609.cpp/250, U,D,D 244M wcr-20160830-173442.cpp/250, U,D,D 256M wcr-20160830-174258.cpp/250, U,D,D 285M wcr-20160830-175139.cpp/250, U,D,D 242M wcr-20160830-180120.cpp/250, U,D,D 252M wcr-20160830-180932.cpp/250, U,D,D 237M wcr-20160830-181805.cpp/250, U,D,D 467M wcr-20160830-182608.cpp/250, U,D,D 247M wcr-20160830-184159.cpp/250, U,D,D 242M wcr-20160830-185022.cpp/250, U,D,D 202M wcr-20160830-185836.cpp/250, U,D,D 261M wcr-20160830-190527.cpp/250, U,D,D 201M wcr-20160830-191419.cpp/250, U,D,D 285M wcr-20160830-192108.cpp/250, U,D,D 446M wcr-20160830-193048.cpp/250, U,D,D ************************************************************************** aug30b (rf04, Drew,Kingsmill,Guy,Heesen): Pioneer Fire, ID Total data: 3.9 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 417M wcr-20160830-221340.cpp/250, U,D,D 501M wcr-20160830-222750.cpp/250, U,D,D 109M wcr-20160830-224451.cpp/250, U,D,D 37M wcr-20160830-224845.cpp/250, D 256M wcr-20160830-225633.cpp/250, U,D,D 501M wcr-20160830-230514.cpp/250, U,D,D 111M wcr-20160830-232215.cpp/250, U,D,D 314M wcr-20160830-232601.cpp/250, U,D,D 491M wcr-20160830-233642.cpp/250, U,D,D 500M wcr-20160830-235323.cpp/250, U,D,D 197M wcr-20160831-001022.cpp/250, U,D,D 89M wcr-20160831-001703.cpp/250, U,D,D 9.2M wcr-20160831-002022.cpp/250, U,D,D 19 sec only; no useful data 91M wcr-20160831-002409.cpp/250, D,D 241M wcr-20160831-002941.cpp/250, D,D 126M wcr-20160831-004422.cpp/250, D,D **************************************************************************