Inversion Method of Regional Range-Dependent Surface Ducts with a Base Layer by Doppler Weather Radar Echoes Based on WRF Model
Ground clutter caused by variations of atmospheric refraction environment can occur when the weather radar is observing precipitation systems, especially in the presence of a tropospheric duct. Therefore, the acquisition of duct parameters is very important for evaluating radar performance and impro...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-07-01
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| Series: | Atmosphere |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/11/7/754 |
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| author | Xiaozhou Liu Zhensen Wu Hongguang Wang |
| author_facet | Xiaozhou Liu Zhensen Wu Hongguang Wang |
| author_sort | Xiaozhou Liu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Ground clutter caused by variations of atmospheric refraction environment can occur when the weather radar is observing precipitation systems, especially in the presence of a tropospheric duct. Therefore, the acquisition of duct parameters is very important for evaluating radar performance and improving data quality. Based on the measured echo data of a Doppler weather radar located at Qingdao and the numerical simulation results of modified refractivity profiles from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, an inversion method for regional range-dependent tropospheric duct parameters over the sea area is proposed in this paper. Due to the higher antenna height of up to 169 m, the transmission environment is assumed to be a surface duct with a base layer for locating the antenna in the trapping layer. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Parabolic Equation (PE) methods were used to characterize the horizontal inhomogeneity of duct parameters and the propagation of electromagnetic waves in the tropospheric duct. In the inversion model, duct parameters extracted from WRF outputs were used as the initial values. Additionally, multithread parallel processing was adopted in order to reduce the inversion time based on the characteristics of the optimization algorithm. The overall variation tendencies of the WRF simulation results in the regional distribution of duct parameters were well consistent with the inversion results, but were relatively lower in terms of specific values. Due to the influence of precipitation targets on measured echo data, the inversed echo data had different agreements with the measurements in space, and the absolute error values were less than 5 dB in about 90% of the region of interest. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T18:26:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ff72a65698ff4949aa3fe1e01c50d549 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4433 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T18:26:15Z |
| publishDate | 2020-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Atmosphere |
| spelling | doaj.art-ff72a65698ff4949aa3fe1e01c50d5492023-11-20T07:00:48ZengMDPI AGAtmosphere2073-44332020-07-0111775410.3390/atmos11070754Inversion Method of Regional Range-Dependent Surface Ducts with a Base Layer by Doppler Weather Radar Echoes Based on WRF ModelXiaozhou Liu0Zhensen Wu1Hongguang Wang2School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, ChinaSchool of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, ChinaChina Research Institute of Radiowave Propagation, Qingdao 266107, ChinaGround clutter caused by variations of atmospheric refraction environment can occur when the weather radar is observing precipitation systems, especially in the presence of a tropospheric duct. Therefore, the acquisition of duct parameters is very important for evaluating radar performance and improving data quality. Based on the measured echo data of a Doppler weather radar located at Qingdao and the numerical simulation results of modified refractivity profiles from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, an inversion method for regional range-dependent tropospheric duct parameters over the sea area is proposed in this paper. Due to the higher antenna height of up to 169 m, the transmission environment is assumed to be a surface duct with a base layer for locating the antenna in the trapping layer. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Parabolic Equation (PE) methods were used to characterize the horizontal inhomogeneity of duct parameters and the propagation of electromagnetic waves in the tropospheric duct. In the inversion model, duct parameters extracted from WRF outputs were used as the initial values. Additionally, multithread parallel processing was adopted in order to reduce the inversion time based on the characteristics of the optimization algorithm. The overall variation tendencies of the WRF simulation results in the regional distribution of duct parameters were well consistent with the inversion results, but were relatively lower in terms of specific values. Due to the influence of precipitation targets on measured echo data, the inversed echo data had different agreements with the measurements in space, and the absolute error values were less than 5 dB in about 90% of the region of interest.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/11/7/754inversionregional inhomogeneitysurface ductDoppler weather radarWRF |
| spellingShingle | Xiaozhou Liu Zhensen Wu Hongguang Wang Inversion Method of Regional Range-Dependent Surface Ducts with a Base Layer by Doppler Weather Radar Echoes Based on WRF Model Atmosphere inversion regional inhomogeneity surface duct Doppler weather radar WRF |
| title | Inversion Method of Regional Range-Dependent Surface Ducts with a Base Layer by Doppler Weather Radar Echoes Based on WRF Model |
| title_full | Inversion Method of Regional Range-Dependent Surface Ducts with a Base Layer by Doppler Weather Radar Echoes Based on WRF Model |
| title_fullStr | Inversion Method of Regional Range-Dependent Surface Ducts with a Base Layer by Doppler Weather Radar Echoes Based on WRF Model |
| title_full_unstemmed | Inversion Method of Regional Range-Dependent Surface Ducts with a Base Layer by Doppler Weather Radar Echoes Based on WRF Model |
| title_short | Inversion Method of Regional Range-Dependent Surface Ducts with a Base Layer by Doppler Weather Radar Echoes Based on WRF Model |
| title_sort | inversion method of regional range dependent surface ducts with a base layer by doppler weather radar echoes based on wrf model |
| topic | inversion regional inhomogeneity surface duct Doppler weather radar WRF |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/11/7/754 |
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