The RONSARD Radars: A Versatile C-Band Dual Doppler Facility

Abstract

In this paper, the authors describe a system of two Doppler radars (the RONSARD system) operated for the study of precipitating clouds (fronts and convective storms). In a first part, emphasis is placed on the system requirements concerning both transportability and flexibility, due to the wide range of atmosphere phenomena to be observed. These requirements lead to an original implementation of the aerial, to a special design of the receiving chain (dual-polarization capability, wide dynamic range, absolute selfcalibration capability) and to the implementation of real-time digital subsystems (amplitude and phase memory, ground clutter cancellor, Fourier transform processor, ambiguous velocity corrector, and a spectrum moment computer). The second part is devoted to a brief review of the scientific programs involving the RONSARD system and to the presentation of some preliminary results.