Operational Status:
still under development and not requestable
General Description:
- The following information is abstracted from the more extensive discussion in a document prepared for the Preliminary Design Review, which can be read in full via the link in the 'Documents" section at the end of this page. The long-term objective is the construction of a scanning polarimetric dual-wavelength radar (K_a and W band) to be housed in a large underwing pod carried by the NSF/NCAR GV research aircraft. The initial system will provide the W-band (94 GHz) component of this system and is expected to be operational in 2013. The K-band system is as yet unfunded but provision is being made for addition of the components that will be required for this dual-wavelength system. The first figure below shows the general configuration of the radar in the large wing pod:
- The antenna will be carried far enough ahead of the wing to permit staring at any angle from upward to outboard to downard to inboard (but not from inboard to upward) and scanning through 270 deg from upward to inboard, as shown in the second diagram below:
Measurement Characteristics:
- Range resolution: 37.5 m
- Along-flight-track resolution at 5 km range: 50 m (beam diameter ca. 0.6 degrees)
- Unambiguous range: 15 km
- Unambiguous velocity range: +/- 8 m/s
- Typical reflectivity uncertainty: 0.4 dB
- Typical radial velocity uncertainty: 0.2 m/s at W=2 m/s
- Overall estimate of uncertainty:
- Response time:
- Precision:
- Other measurement characteristics (comments on signal/noise, bias limits, etc):