Low-Altitude Wind Shear Detection with Airport Surveillance Radars: Evaluation of 1987 Field Measurements
Abstract
A field measurement program is being conducted to investigate the capabilities of airport surveillance radars (ASR) to detect low altitude wind shear (LAWS). This capability would require minor RF signal path modifications in existing ASRs and the addition of a signal processing channel to measure the radial velocity of precipitation wind tracers and automatically detect regions of hazardous velocity shear. A modified ASR-8 has been deployed in Huntsville, Alabama and is operated during periods of nearby thunderstorm activity. Data from approximately 30 'wet' (i.e., high radar reflectivity) microbursts during 1987 have been evaluated through comparison with simultaneous measurements from a collocated pencil beam weather radar. This report describes the 1987 approaches for LAWS detection with ASRs. Techniques are described for estimation of low altitude wind fields in the presence of interference such as ground clutter or weather aloft and for automatic detection of microburst wind shear from the resulting radial velocity fields. Evaluation of these techniques using case studies and statistical scoring of the automatic detection algorithm indicates that a suitably modified ASR could detect wet microbursts within 16 km of the radar with a detection probability in excess of 0.90 and a corresponding false alarm probability of less than 0.10. These favorable results indicate the need for careful consideration of implementation issues and the potential operational role of wind measurements from an ASR. Keywords: Meteorological radar, Radial velocity estimation, Hazard detection algorithm.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 31, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA199189
Entities
People
- Mark E. Weber
- Terri A. Noyes
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology