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Dual‐wavelength processing: Some effects of mismatched antenna beam patterns
Author(s) -
Rinehart Ronald E.,
Tuttle John D.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
radio science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1944-799X
pISSN - 0048-6604
DOI - 10.1029/rs019i001p00123
Subject(s) - radar , wavelength , antenna (radio) , optics , remote sensing , dual (grammatical number) , beam (structure) , physics , computer science , telecommunications , geology , art , literature
Dual‐wavelength radar studies aimed at the detection of hail generally assume that the two radars used are sampling identically the same volume in space. In this paper we examine the effects of mismatched antenna beam patterns, both the main lobes and the side lobes, on dual‐wavelength hail detection. Mismatched beam patterns produce erroneous hail signals which can be quite misleading. The NCAR CP‐2/M33 dual‐wavelength radar produced erroneous negative hail signals as large as − 20 dB in some parts of storms, while the new CP‐2 dual‐wavelength radar produces erroneous positive hail signals as large as + 9 dB. We discuss how well matched the antenna beam patterns must be to produce acceptably low erroneous hail signals. We also discuss the serious implications of these findings on earlier dual‐wavelength studies.