Multiple receiver wind profiling techniques for the boundary layer in the presence of hydro-meteors
Baelen, Joel Van ; Hirsch, Lutz ; Prada, Claire
A UHF boundary layer wind profiler has been operated in a multiple receiver mode. The data sets collected are used to estimate the horizontal wind using different multiple receiver analysis techniques performed in the time and frequency domains. Those results are also compared with simultaneous Doppler beam swinging measurements. The particularity of the data sets used for this inter-comparison is that they were recorded while hydro-meteors were present in the boundary layer. The large mean fall speed and the broad fall velocity distribution of rain drops causes a much more rapid decay of diffraction patterns than in the case of scattering by snow flakes or micro turbulence. Therefore, analysis methods which do not account for the effect of the decay of the diffraction patterns show an over-estimation of the wind velocity, and do so in a different way whether snow or rain is present. To the contrary, algorithms that account for the effect of diffraction pattern decay appear to reasonably estimate the actual horizontal wind and compare well with the Doppler measurements.
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