Rain In Cumulus over Ocean Experiment 6-21 Dec 2004, 4-24 Jan 2005 Wyoming Cloud Radar Data Status Report Content: General Notes Radar Status/Problems Data File Information WCR configuration Calibration Notes Terminology and other notes ................................................................................ General Notes: * WCR raw data is archived and available on DVD disks. Quicklooks, dataquality, and calibration data is also recorded on these disks. Radar processed data files in NetCDF format are available usually within 2 months after the conclusion of the experiment (preliminary version may be available earlier). The NetCDF files are available on DVD disks as well. * Quick look images of co-pol reflectivity for all the flights are stored on the project WCR web site in their corresponding directories(mmmDD) as pdf files. * For this experiment we are using UMass Tx subsystem, due to failure of our Tx. UMass system is using 0.5% duty cycle modulator. It also requires significantly higher(6.5 dB higher) input power to the tube. The tube is very old and is probably performing below its maximum peak power. As a result the transmitted power is well below what we normally get with our system. Nevertheless the transmitter leakage affects at least the 0th (first) range gate (105 m) for data collected with 500 ns pulses. The overall loss of sensitivity is in the order of 15 dB. ................................................................................ Radar Status/Problems * There are occasional loss of V-ch signal and in a couple of cases both H- and V-chs. Since during this periods the noise signals dropped as well it could have been malfunctioning of the 2MHz IF filter or the switch to that filter in the filter bank (IF unit); try changing the filter (from CPAS) when such an event occurs. * On Jan 23 1st flight both H and V-ch are missing but the H-ch maintains its noise at the proper level and the signal-nosignal arreas look strange (like messed up circulator switching ???) * Doppler data appeared corrputed by a bias which is range dependent. The beam pointing angles are also not well determined due to this problem. The reason for the range dependence is not identified at this time. _______________ Dec 7, Flight The aircraft air-conditioner did not work and 30 minutes into the flight the radar had to be shut down to prevent overheating. _______________ Dec 9, Flight Larry Oolman reported elevated background on both channels before 1533 In the data there is a loss of return about 152312 for about 15 sec; however it can be identified for V-ch only. _______________ Dec 10, Flight Aircraft air conditioner failed again and the radar had to be shut down after about 15-min of data recording. _______________ Dec 14, Flight Aircraft air conditioner failed and the radar had to be shut down after about 50-min of data recording. _______________ Jan 09, Flight !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Glenn reported elevated noise (yellow level but the sea surface is visible and below the sea surface the noise level is ok) in the real- time display of cpas. It was appearing frequently (half the time) and disappearing w/o any obvious reason. Appears to be cpas display problem. Glenn also reported disappearing V channel on the scope and the cpas (show flat line lines, no noise, no leakage). Switching TX to StandBy and restarting cpas fixed it. _______________ Jan 10, Flight !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Few short periods of V-ch missing (no V-Tx pulse or Rx severely atten.) (same as Jan 09 flight but not noticed by the operator) _______________ Jan 12, Flight Glenn reported spontaneous switch between record on and record off (more than 50 1-s files were created) without touching the mouse and the mouse being away from the record button (Glenn witnessed the events) _______________ Jan 15, Flight !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The KA data system failed twice. It appears that this was the reason for two time glitches in W2005-01-15-14-17-29. One of the time glitches is fixable (14:24:02,profiles 7600:7634, 2-sec negative jump). The 2nd glitch is bizzare and is most likly due loss of synch when the KA data system was completely shut down. The time never recovered when compared with the time stamps before the glitch (15:46:34, profile 93776 has both for the second and microsec huge negative numbers; after that the time started 29.8 sec behind the last good time and after one jump of +17 sec it stayed close to 13 sec (!!! leap seconds coincident ???) behind until the end of the file. ATTN: Make sure the radar operator shuts down the radar when KA data system fails. _______________ Jan 16, Flight !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Few short periods of V-ch missing (no V-Tx pulse or Rx severely atten.) ................................................................................ WCR Data File Information: ************************************************************************** nov26: (test flight, Laramie, stratus,light snow, crew: Drew, Oolman, Haimov ) Total data: MB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 2.5M W2004-11-26-17-01-20 spp/250 Up using DSP clock 1.1M W2004-11-26-17-04-37 spp/500 Up 30M W2004-11-26-17-32-11 pp4/250 Side,Side 21M W2004-11-26-17-35-08 pp4/250 Down,Down 19M W2004-11-26-17-38-31 pp8/500 S,S,D,D 11M W2004-11-26-17-43-44 pp4/500 Side,Side 11M W2004-11-26-17-47-33 pp4/500 Down,Down 15M W2004-11-26-17-50-44 pp6/500 S,D,D 16M W2004-11-26-17-56-36 pp4/250 Side,Side beam cal. ground 33M W2004-11-26-17-58-41 pp4/250 Down,Dow, beam cal. ground 25M W2004-11-26-18-02-11 pp4/250 S,S,D,D beam cal. ground ************************************************************************** dec07: (crew: Fagerstrom,Vali,Oolman,Drew) Total data: 89 MB Alg Antennas Notes 89M W2004-12-07-17-43-19 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 175530 - comm. interf. ************************************************************************** dec09: (crew: Drew,Vali,Oolman,Burkhart) Total data: 702 MB Alg Antennas Notes 88M W2004-12-09-15-12-52 pp4/500 Up/Side, Down 152312-152327 loss of pwr 175M W2004-12-09-15-33-05 pp4/500 Up/Side, Down 179M W2004-12-09-16-37-46 pp4/500 Up/Side, Down 150M W2004-12-09-17-19-45 pp4/500 Up/Side, Down surface return in the H-ch (coupling due to finite iso) 46M W2004-12-09-17-59-57 pp4/500 Side,Side beam cal. ground, some precip to the ground 19M W2004-12-09-18-04-25 pp4/250 Side,Side beam cal. ground 44M W2004-12-09-18-06-39 pp4/250 Down,Down beam cal. ground ************************************************************************** dec10: (crew: Fagerstrom,Vali,Oolman,Glover) Total data: 76 MB Alg Antennas Notes 76M W2004-12-10-17-27-54 pp4/500 Up,Down ************************************************************************** dec13: (crew: Drew,Vali,Oolman,Glover) Total data: 596 MB Alg Antennas Notes 510M W2004-12-13-19-00-20 pp4/500 Up/Side, Down, 19:07-elev. noise 204210-204433 - 3 45deg circles over ocean (rel cal) No KA data from 195554 to 200825 33M W2004-12-13-20-56-10 pp4/250 Side,Side beam cal. ground 38M W2004-12-13-20-59-24 pp4/250 Down,Down beam cal. ground ************************************************************************** dec14: (crew: Fagerstrom,Bart,Oolman,Burkhart) Total data: 596 MB Alg Antennas Notes 227M W2004-12-14-16-08-40 pp4/500 Up/Side, Down No KA data from 162304 to 162609 ************************************************************************** dec16: (crew: Drew,Bart,Oolman,Glover) Total data: 639 MB Alg Antennas Notes 254M W2004-12-16-19-28-28 pp4/250 Down,Down beam cal. ground No KA data from 193818 to 193943 146M W2004-12-16-19-51-20 pp4/250 Side,Down beam cal. ground 238M W2004-12-16-20-11-36 pp4/500 Up/Side, Down ************************************************************************** dec17: (crew: Fagerstrom,Vali,Oolman,Glover) Total data: 883 MB Alg Antennas Notes 790M W2004-12-17-14-58-19 pp4/500 Up/Side, Down No KA data from 152131 to 152314 73M W2004-12-17-17-53-15 pp4/500 Up/Side, Down ************************************************************************** dec18: (crew: Drew,Geerts,Oolman,Glover) Total data: 1000 MB Alg Antennas Notes 836M W2004-12-18-15-22-11 pp4/500 Up/Side, Down 163M W2004-12-18-18-25-13 pp4/250 Side,Side beam cal. ground ************************************************************************** dec19a: (crew: Drew,Geerts,Oolman,Glover) Total data: 795 MB Alg Antennas Notes 795M W2004-12-19-12-43-03 pp4/500 Up/Side, Down dec19b: (crew: Fagerstrom,Geerts,Oolman,Glover) Total data: MB Alg Antennas Notes 471M W2004-12-19-17-39-18 pp4/500 Up/Side, Down ************************************************************************** jan05: (crew: Drew,Vali,Gordon,Wechsler) Total data: 752 MB Alg Antennas Notes 402M W2005-01-05-15-44-33 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 36M W2005-01-05-17-28-25 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 265M W2005-01-05-17-36-25 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 47M W2005-01-05-18-39-07 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down ************************************************************************** jan07: (crew: Fagerstrom,Geerts,Gordon,Wechsler) Total data: 802 MB Alg Antennas Notes 341M W2005-01-07-15-25-26 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 442M W2005-01-07-16-43-22 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 17M W2005-01-07-18-19-58 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down rel. pwr cal side/down circles over ocean ************************************************************************** jan09: (crew: Drew,Vali,Gordon,Lukens) Total data: 720 MB Alg Antennas Notes 58M W2005-01-09-18-10-10 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 40M W2005-01-09-18-23-08 pp4/500 Down,Down 182940-end: V-pwr missing (Glenn reported this) 142M W2005-01-09-18-35-12 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 190418: suspicous discont. 39M W2005-01-09-19-09-33 pp4/500 Down,Down 22M W2005-01-09-19-18-27 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 16M W2005-01-09-19-23-33 pp4/500 Down,Down 22M W2005-01-09-19-27-19 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 100M W2005-01-09-19-32-30 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 13M W2005-01-09-19-54-40 pp4/500 Down,Down 206M W2005-01-09-19-58-01 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 62M W2005-01-09-20-43-11 pp4/500 Down,Down 205538-45,205555-04: No Tx or both ch. missing ************************************************************************** jan10: (crew: Fagerstrom,Geerts,Gordon,Wechsler) Total data: 913 MB Alg Antennas Notes 913M W2005-01-10-15-56-04 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 180442-55: V-ch missing 190155-0210: V-ch atten. 190447-57: V-ch atten. ************************************************************************** jan11: (crew: Drew,Vali,Gordon,Lukens) Total data: 614 MB Alg Antennas Notes 12M W2005-01-11-16-54-31 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 165355-5417 - Tx on Stndby 33M W2005-01-11-16-57-42 pp4/500 Down,Down 43M W2005-01-11-17-05-09 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 13M W2005-01-11-17-14-44 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 259M W2005-01-11-17-24-51 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 36M W2005-01-11-18-21-32 pp4/500 Down,Down 13M W2005-01-11-18-29-36 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 26M W2005-01-11-18-32-55 pp4/500 Down,Down 113M W2005-01-11-18-38-56 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 63M W2005-01-11-19-04-17 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down ************************************************************************** jan12: (crew: Fagerstrom,Geerts,Gordon,Lukens) Total data: 910 MB Alg Antennas Notes 37M W2005-01-12-16-37-01 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 85M W2005-01-12-16-48-11 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 452M W2005-01-12-17-10-12 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 334M W2005-01-12-18-49-55 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down ************************************************************************** jan14: (crew: Drew,Vali,Gordon,Wechsler) Total data: 1.0 GB Alg Antennas Notes 1.0G W2005-01-14-16-47-59 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down ************************************************************************** jan15: (crew: Fagerstrom,Geerts,Lukens,Wechsler) Total data: 799 MB Alg Antennas Notes 636M W2005-01-15-14-17-29 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down time stamps problem 108M W2005-01-15-16-37-14 pp4/500 Down,Down stacked streight legs over Barbuda (DV tests) 53M W2005-01-15-17-01-43 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 45 deg circles over Barbuda (DV tests) ************************************************************************** jan16: (crew: Drew,Vali,Gordon,Wechsler) Total data: 859 MB Alg Antennas Notes 163M W2005-01-16-17-59-34 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down V-ch missing 181115-181252 181605-181630,182830-183415 131M W2005-01-16-18-35-21 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down V-ch missing 185420-185450 240M W2005-01-16-19-11-51 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down V-ch missing 1838-50, 1952-56: bad V noise comm.interference 323M W2005-01-16-20-05-12 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down ************************************************************************** jan17a: (crew: Fagerstrom,Vali,Gordon,Lukens) Total data: 720 MB Alg Antennas Notes 391M W2005-01-17-12-09-36 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 44M W2005-01-17-13-35-33 pp4/500 Down,Down 12M W2005-01-17-13-46-35 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 25M W2005-01-17-13-49-37 pp4/500 Down,Down 142M W2005-01-17-13-55-21 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 34M W2005-01-17-14-26-48 pp4/500 Down,Down 70M W2005-01-17-14-34-29 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down ************************************************************************** jan17b: (crew: Fagerstrom,Geerts,Wechsler,Dennis O'Donnel) Total data: 797 MB Alg Antennas Notes 210M W2005-01-17-17-35-40 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 9.2M W2005-01-17-18-37-37 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 95M W2005-01-17-18-45-31 pp4/500 Down,Down 481M W2005-01-17-19-07-08 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down ************************************************************************** jan18a: (crew: Drew,Geerts,Wechsler,Dennis O'Donnel) Total data: 1.1 GB Alg Antennas Notes 137M W2005-01-18-12-05-33 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 4.7M W2005-01-18-12-36-25 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 909M W2005-01-18-12-37-40 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down ************************************************************************** jan18b: (crew: Drew,Vali,Gordon,Lukens) Total data: 808 MB Alg Antennas Notes 269M W2005-01-18-18-15-03 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 98M W2005-01-18-19-15-26 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 336M W2005-01-18-19-40-43 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 103M W2005-01-18-21-15-35 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down ************************************************************************** jan19a: (crew: Fagerstrom,Vali,Gordon,Lukens) Total data: 940 MB Alg Antennas Notes 82M W2005-01-19-12-03-25 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down V-ch missing 121950-2021 676M W2005-01-19-12-23-13 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 50M W2005-01-19-14-50-39 pp4/500 Down,Down 131M W2005-01-19-15-01-45 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down ************************************************************************** jan19b: (crew: Fagerstrom,Geerts,Wechsler,Lukens) Total data: 628 MB Alg Antennas Notes 628M W2005-01-19-18-34-47 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down ************************************************************************** jan21: (crew: Drew,Stevens,Gordon,Wechsler) Total data: 744 MB Alg Antennas Notes 186M W2005-01-21-17-28-19 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down pretty much nothing 319M W2005-01-21-18-30-05 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down very little 237M W2005-01-21-19-50-31 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down ************************************************************************** jan23a: (crew: Fagerstrom,Geerts,Wechsler,Lukens) Total data: 769 MB Alg Antennas Notes 12M W2005-01-23-12-14-37 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down V-ch missing, No useful data 323M W2005-01-23-12-22-58 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down V-ch missing H-ch missing but diff (switching problem ????) 46M W2005-01-23-13-37-10 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down V-ch missing 340M W2005-01-23-13-51-32 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 46M W2005-01-23-15-16-14 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down ************************************************************************** jan23b: (crew: Fagerstrom,Vali,Wechsler,Dennis O'Donnel) Total data: 624 MB Alg Antennas Notes 75M W2005-01-23-18-09-20 pp4/500 Down,Down 415M W2005-01-23-18-26-21 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down 86M W2005-01-23-20-11-20 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down KingAir data not available 46M W2005-01-23-20-35-18 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down ************************************************************************** jan24: (crew: Drew,Geerts,Gordon,Wechsler) Total data: 765 MB Alg Antennas Notes 105M W2005-01-24-12-16-55 pp4/500 Down,Down 192M W2005-01-24-12-40-07 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down V-ch miss:131500,131900, 131955,132025 163M W2005-01-24-13-22-21 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down V-ch miss: 1354-57 9.9M W2005-01-24-14-27-21 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down V-ch miss., No useful data 20M W2005-01-24-14-30-53 pp4/500 Down,Down V-ch miss., No useful data 11M W2005-01-24-14-38-07 pp4/500 Down,Down No useful data 263M W2005-01-24-14-40-58 pp4/500 Up/Side,Down ************************************************************************** ................................................................................ WCR configuration: WCR was installed on UWKA with a dual-antenna configuration: Antenna 1 2,3 and 4 and no polarization capability (for more see www-das.uwyo.edu/wcr); Antenna ports are: Ant1 (side/up) - H1, Ant2(near nadir) - V2, Ant3(side-forward) - V3, Ant4(down-forward) - H2; H/V stands for the receiver used (there are 2 receivers). Cross-channels (HXVX and VXHX channels) have no meaning for this configuration. Ant. 1 uses UWKA radar mirror wing to direct the radar beam side or up. The radar mirror events are recorded in the King Air data files. Mirror switching times are extracted in ascii files and placed under their corresponding flight day directories (file names: KAyyyymmdd.hhmmss_hhmmss.mirror) When the mirror file is not present a single positon (up or side) has been used during the flight. ................................................................................ Calibration notes: * Calibration constants for this experiment as of Calibration constants (250 ns pulse, 5 MHz IF filter, dynamic range > 70 dB; for 500 ns pulse subtract 3.5 dB): Ant. 1 (side/up), HHcal1 = 66.5 Ant. 2 (nadir), VVcal2 = 65.0 Ant. 3 (side-fore), VVcal3 = 72.0 Ant. 4 (down-fore), HHcal2 = 70.5 With UMass Tx subsystem the calibration constants are about 12-16 dB larger (lower sensitivity) than normal and there is no good estimate of their accuracy. Cross-channel Isolation > 50 dB Antenna Coupling Separation: better than 50 dB; weak coupling was noticed between side and nadir antenna (only for close range surface returns) **************************************************************************** * Calibration constants used for quick look images: Ant. 1 (side/up), HHcal1 = 62 @ 250ns Ant. 2 (nadir), VVcal2 = 64 @ 250ns Ant. 3 (side-fore), VVcal3 = 67.5 @ 250ns Ant. 4 (down-fore), HHcal2 = 69.5 @ 250ns **************************************************************************** ................................................................................ Terminology and other notes: Terminology used to acknowledge data quality for each data file reported under Data file indormation: 1) SPIKES are defined as short lasting (less than a few secs), large excursions in positive or negative direction (higher than 2-3 dB). 2) ELEVATED NOISE (including short spikes) is defined as occasional change in the mean noise that exceeds 2-3 dB and lasts from fraction of a second to more than a minute. It is usually associated with ground hits and/or multi-trip echoes. It is observed for side looking mode only. 3) NOISE JUMPS/SPIKES (up to 10-20 sec). Probably some sort of short interference not necessarily in both channels and in some cases associated with the mirror position change or A/C radio communications at freqs close to 120MHz 3) NOISE DRIFT is up to 2dB slow drift in the noise channel; likely due to drift in the receivers gain. Usually it does not exceed 0.5 dB. 4) BAD DATA refer to corrupted data or improbable data behavior. 5) DATA SHIFT means that all data channels are shifted one range gate to the right for one or both of the DSPs. 6) DATA GAPS: gaps between profiles exceeding several times the average time interval between profiles 7) TIME STAMP ERROR: known fixed shift in the time stamps. 8) TIME JUMPS: sync problem in the time which results in time stamps jumps including negative jumps 9) DATA DISCONTINUITY: unexpected jumps in reflectivity occurring thru all range gates from one profile to another. 10) V/H-MISSING or V/H severely attenuated reffer to unidentified problem causing severe attanuation or lack of signal from a target Other Notes: * WCR data acquisition system (DAQ) records time stamps from the vxi IRIG card which is slaved to the master KingAir data system IRIG card. The recorded time stamps are GPS time (currently 13 sec ahead of UTC). * The zero range gate, when at 75 m, is contaminated with the transmitter pulse leakage which appears at levels as high as -35 dBm@500ns (+13 dBZ). On the other hand very stong returns at 0 and 1st range gates are slightly undervalued (1 dB or less) due to receiver protection switches still residually closed. This range is in the antenna far field for the SideUp (12") antenna. Far fields for the 18" and 15" down antennas are 132 m and 91 m, respectively. Thus for the bigger antennas the first few range gates may have larger calibration errors. * When in side looking mode and maximum unambiguous range of 7.5 km, the data can be contaminated from second trip echoes, mostly from surface. Caution should be exercised when analyzing side looks. * Average DSP jumps (data jumps between two consecutive profiles due to data acquisition DSP) are mostly near zero for low power returns but frequently high power return (as indicated by the leak) exhibit jumps as high as 1-2 dB and thus averaging at least two profiles is recommended to reduce calibration errors. This is usually taken care of in the post- processing of the radar data which archives the radar products in NetCDF files.