First experiences of the operational use of a dual-polarisation weather radar in Finland

Many national weather services are currently bringing dual-polarisation radars into operational use, after three decades of its use in research. In Finland, three systems are already running operationally, and the data are integrated into the national weather service infrastructure. This opens up ne...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Elena Saltikoff, Ljubov Nevvonen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Borntraeger 2011-06-01
Series:Meteorologische Zeitschrift
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1127/0941-2948/2011/0197
Description
Summary:Many national weather services are currently bringing dual-polarisation radars into operational use, after three decades of its use in research. In Finland, three systems are already running operationally, and the data are integrated into the national weather service infrastructure. This opens up new possibilities for applications, but also sets new challenges for measurement design. Our solution has been to alternate measurements optimized for dual-polarisation with another set of measurements optimized for the best quality of Doppler velocity data. This paper describes how the new measurement schedule was designed, balancing between the different needs of the end-users. Our experience after a few months of usage is illustrated with three case studies in weather situations typical of the Finnish climate
ISSN:0941-2948