Ground Clutter Mitigation for Weather Radars Using the Autocorrelation Spectral Density

Abstract

Abstract Radar returns from the ground, known as ground clutter, can contaminate weather signals, often resulting in severely biased meteorological estimates. If not removed, these contaminants may artificially inflate quantitative precipitation estimates and obscure polarimetric and Doppler signatures of weather. A ground-clutter filter is typically employed to mitigate this contamination and provide less biased meteorological-variable estimates. This paper introduces a novel adaptive filter based on the autocorrelation spectral density, which is capable of mitigating the adverse effects of ground clutter without unnecessarily degrading the quality of the meteorological data. The so-called Clutter Environment Analysis using Adaptive Processing (CLEAN-AP) filter adjusts its suppression characteristics in real time to match dynamic atmospheric environments and meets Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) clutter-suppression requirements.