Open AccessAn Improved Method for Estimating Radar Echo-Top Height
Author(s) -
Valliappa Lakshmanan,
Kurt Hondl,
Corey K. Potvin,
David Preignitz
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
weather and forecasting
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.393
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1520-0434
pISSN - 0882-8156
DOI - 10.1175/waf-d-12-00084.1
Subject(s) - echo (communications protocol) , radar , thunderstorm , remote sensing , elevation (ballistics) , range (aeronautics) , geology , tops , meteorology , environmental science , computer science , geography , mathematics , computer network , telecommunications , materials science , geometry , composite material , azimuth
It is demonstrated that the traditional method, in widespread use on Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) and other radar systems, to compute echo-top heights results in both under- and overestimates. It is proposed that echo tops be computed by interpolating between elevation scans that bracket the echo-top threshold. The traditional and proposed techniques are evaluated using simulated radar samples of a modeled thunderstorm and by sampling a high-resolution range–height indicator (RHI) of a real thunderstorm. It is shown that the proposed method results in smaller errors when higher-elevation scans are available.