Calibration of CSU CHIVO radar during the RELAMPAGO campaign
Date
2022
Authors
Kim, Juhyup, author
Chandrasekaran, V., advisor
Ray, Indrakshi, committee member
Cheney, Margaret, committee member
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Abstract
Colorado State University C-band Hydrometeorological Instrument for Volumetric Observation (CSU CHIVO) radar is a dual-polarization weather radar operated by Colorado State University. CHIVO radar is easy to be transported and deployed compared to conventional S-band radars. CHIVO radar can be disassembled, shipped, and re-assembled to be deployed to observe weather phenomena at different locations in the world. During the Remote Sensing of Electrification, Lightning, and Mesoscale/Microscale Process with Adaptive Ground Observations (RELAMPAGO) field campaign, CHIVO radar was deployed to Córdoba & Mendoza provinces in Argentina and operated during two observing periods: one from November 10, 2018, to December 22, 2018, and another from December 27, 2018, to January 31, 2019. Any high-quality research radar requires proper calibration to ensure high data quality. To address the requirements associated with high-quality weather radar, this thesis presents 3 aspects of radar calibrations namely a) azimuth, which indicates the horizontal position of targets, b) reflectivity (Z), which indicates the returned power at horizontal polarization, and c) differential reflectivity (ZDR) which indicates the ratio of the horizontal to vertical polarizations of the Z. The calibration techniques presented in this thesis utilizes the sun as a calibration source, ground targets, and meteorological targets. These three techniques are applied appropriately to analyze and calibrate the radar data sets. The goal of the radar calibrations was to improve the data quality to provide researchers with accurate data sets so that weather phenomena under different geological and climatic conditions can be properly studied and understood.
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Embargo Expires: 08/22/2024