Design and Deployment of a Portable, Pencil-Beam, Pulsed, 3-cm Doppler Radar

Abstract

A portable, pencil-beam, pulsed, Doppler, 3-cm wavelength radar has been constructed to study a wide variety of meteorological phenomena including tornadoes, severe storms, and boundary layer processes. The new radar, the Doppler on Wheels (DOW), has full scanning capability, a real-time display and archiving, and is mounted on a truck for easy portability and full mobility. This portability allows the radar to be brought to within a kilometer of rare meteorological phenomena. At this range, the pencil beam of the radar is very narrow, permitting significantly higher-resolution measurements (at 3-km range, 64 m × 64 m × 75 m) than are usually possible with stationary or airborne systems. The radar employs a new high-powered, PC-based, digital intermediate frequency (IF) data acquisition scheme called the PIRAQ. The radar has successfully collected data in several tornadoes and tornadic storms and has been used to detect dust devils and other boundary layer structures. The sensitivity and mobility of the radar permits two-dimensional traveling vertical wind profiles to be obtained, extending the applicability of traditional one-dimensional profilers. Other applications are possible, including avian and entomological studies, pseudo-dual-Doppler, and rainfall estimation following and rapidly scanning storms in conjunction with mobile rain gauges.