0OLARIMETRYAPPLIEDTOAVIONICWEATHERRADAR

IMPROVEMENTONMETEOROLOGICALPHENOMENADETECTION
ANDCLASSIFICATION
Alberto Lupidi1, Christian Moscardini2, Andrea
Garzelli3, Fabrizio Berizzi4, Fabrizio Cuccoli5

Marcello Bernab

CNIT-RaSS (National Interuniversitary Consortium for

Telecommunication-national laboratory of radar and
Surveillance Systems)
Italy
{1a.lupidi,2c.moscardini,4f.berizzi}@ iet.unipi.it
3
andrea.garzelli @ dii.unisi.it
5
fabrizio.cuccoli @ cnit.it
AbstractAvionic Weather Radar is an essential equipment in
aircraft. Polarimetry can improve the detection and the
classification of hydrometeors and thus the safety and the
efficiency of the flight. Here a 3D polarimetric radar simulator
for the feasibility study on avionic weather polarimetric radar is
presented.

SELEXGalileo S.p.A.
Campi Bisenzio-Italy
marcello.bernabo @ selexgalileo.com

developed with the knowledge of Total (Z) and Differential

Reflectivity (ZDR) and Linear Depolarization Ratio LDR
defined as

Z DR
LDR

I.

Z HH dBZ  ZVV dBZ

(1)

ZVH dBZ  Z HH dBZ

(2)

INTRODUCTION

In current avionic systems is impossible to distinguish the type

of precipitation, water, snow, hail. Of course, assumptions can
be done, i.e., high reflectivity in a zone where temperature is
15-20 degrees below zero is likely to indicate an hailstorm, but
we can have no precise information on type of precipitation
near and below the melting height (which also depend on
season and geographic region). About 70% of the highreflectivity echoes that pilots see on their radar is nonhazardous (other than causing a decrease in visibility and
making runways wet). To determine whether or not a particular red echo is hazardous in terms of turbulence and hail and
other dangers, the pilot must first know if the atmosphere in
which he is flying is conducive to of hail and high turbulence.
It is worth noting to recall that heavy rain without turbulence is
not an issue for the safety of the flight. But even with
atmospheric knowledge, a pilot cannot say whether a particular
high-reflectivity area is hazardous. Usually, the pilot evades
that area, with an increase of costs, time and polluting
emissions due to the detour. The use of polarimetry can help
giving us more precise details on hydrometeor types [1].
For example, rain tends to have an elliptical form with
minor axis oriented vertically, resulting in HH signal to be
higher than VV signal thus having a positive high Differential
Reflectivity. On the contrary, hail, due to its tumbling motion,
appears as spherical, thus having a nearly zero Differential
Reflectivity, even at higher reflectivity (and higher hazard)
level. Classification algorithms which utilize the polarimetric
information on the three channels (HH, VV, HV/VH) can be

In this work we assume X-Band based system (around 910 GHz) that are preferred because they have an antenna
whose dimensions are compact and compatible also for
business aircrafts. Polarimetric classification algorithms for
ground based S-C bands systems already exist and in general
there is no great difference between ground based and airborne
operation in the application of these algorithms [2], [3].
Differences arise from the technical limitations of the airborne
system, like antenna size, transmitted power and scanning
speed. Main issues for avionic weather radars in conjunction
with the use of X-band are:
1.

heavy beam path attenuation and Mie scattering effects

2.

ground clutter

3.

wider beam width

4.

data availability

In this paper we did not deal with path attenuation and ground
clutter. These problems will be addressed in future works. We
solved the problem of data availability simulating real radar
data with a physical based approach described later. Section II
describes the scenario and the mentioned approach, while in
section III and IV we show some results and conclusion
respectively.

Proceedings of ESAV'11 - September 12 - 14 Capri, Italy

73

II.

ATMOSPHERIC SCENARIO AND RADAR MODEL

One of the problems in weather radar engineering is the

availability of data. Moreover, in radar meteorology, data are
available mainly in S-band (around 3 GHz) because this is the
band chosen for ground based weather radar. To simulate
realistic polarimetric radar data in X-Band, the two most
important things we need to know to compute the radar
reflectivity are:
1.

the Drop Diameter Distribution (DSD) of hydrometeors

N(D) measured in m-4

2.

their polarimetric Radar Cross Section (RCS) VH,VD

measured in m2.

The simulation input values include the radar systems

parameters, the cinematic characteristics of the airborne
platform, the antenna parameters and the scanning angle
strategy. Other inputs specify the phenomenon characteristics
in term of wind field and radar reflectivity. Last two variable is
represented by a 3D data cube, described before. From both the
initial aircraft position and the initial antenna scan direction,
the simulation consists of the generation of the instantaneous
received signal. For each range bin, the amplitude and phase of
the received signal can be seen as the coherent sum of a
number of contributions that came from volumetric scattering
mechanism.

III.

3D SIMULATION RESULTS

Polarimetric reflectivity is finally computed as

4

Z H ,V

O
V H ,V ( D) N ( D)dD ,
0.93S 5 0

(3)

Total reflectivity is the result from summing the contributes of

hail and rain calculated separately.
For DSD calculation we adopted the Weather Research and
Forecast Model (WRF), a state-of the art NWP developed by a
consortium of research institutes including NOAA and NCAR
[4]. The WRF can also provide the temporal evolution of
parameters based on a real scenario. This NWP gives us
important parameters needed for the definition of an analytical,
physical based Drop Size Distribution (DSD):
1) Hydrometeor mixing ratio [Kg/Kg]

A. Description of the simulated scenario

Simulations were performed with the transponder
characteristics summarized in Table 1. It is worth nothing that
the radar simulator can perform a full 360 scanning, but for
avionic uses we can reduce this range to 180 or less. The
aircraft is positioned in the center (0,0), heading south at 150
knots. The relatively low transmitted power is meant to
simulate the latest state-of-the-art solid-state GaAs radar
transmitters equipping civil avionic weather radars, designed to
work with such low peak power.
TABLE I. TRANSCEIVER CHARACTERISTICS
Transmitted frequency

9.353 GHz

Pulse length

1 Ps

PRF

6.5 kHz

Range resolution

150 m

2) Pressure [Pa]

Beam width

3) Potential temperature [K]

Transmitted power

195 Watt

4) Particle Number Concentration [particles/m3].

Antenna Gain

33 dB

Additionally WRF provides the wind field used to compute

Doppler shifts.

Noise figure

4 dB

The DSD that we used in our computation is a Gamma

probability density function.

An area of about 1800 km2 in the Mediterranean Sea, close

to Barcelona, Spain, was selected, with a maximum height of
8000 m. Figure 1 shows the profiles of hydrometeor mixing
ratios obtained from WRF at altitudes of 450 m, 1000 m and
2000 m with a RGB mapping. Red indicates hail/graupel, blue
indicates rain and mixed precipitation zones are in purple.

To compute the polarimetric RCS, we utilized a T-Matrix

method. The T-Matrix method is the fastest exact technique for
the computation of non-spherical scattering based on a direct
solution of Maxwell equations [5],[6]. Dielectric constants,
particle orientation, diameter and the relationship between
diameter and axial ratio are set as parameters to calculate the
electromagnetic scattering. Details on the generation of the 3D
reflectivity maps for every polarimetric channel can be found
in our previous work [7].
The received radar signal is then generated using a customized version of Airborne Windshear Doppler Radar
Simulation (ADWRS), extensively used by NASA in various
campaigns [8].

74

B. Results
Figures 2 to 4 show some simulation results regarding ZHH,
ZDR and LDR, which accounts for the more or less pronounced
oscillations of hydrometeors. All these parameters are useful
for classification between liquid and solid dangerous particles.
Figure 2 shows results for the lowest altitude level, well
under the melting layer, dominated by rain. We can notice the
presence of a heavy storm characterized by strong reflectivity

Proceedings of ESAV'11 - September 12 - 14 Capri, Italy

echoes up to 53 dBZ, however we cannot distinguish if these

echoes are due to hail or rain. Analyzing ZDR, the radar
retrieves values from 1 up to 3.6 dB in the storm core. As
explained in section I, this behavior indicates a rain dominated
zone, as. Moreover, LDR level do not surpass -25 dB level,
indicating small oscillations of particles during fall, which is
another characteristics of rain. Over -15 dB values appear
usually where both Zhh and Zvh are very low, so the ratio is
similar.
Figure 3 represents an intermediate altitude where rain and
hail are heavily mixed. As expected, total reflectivity level
remains the same as before, but we can appreciate variations in
the values of ZDR and LDR. ZDR begins to decrease steadily
reaching his top at 2.8 dB, while LDR rises up to a value of 21.2 dB. This behavior is typical of a mixed precipitation zone,
but we can still detect rain presence in near the borders of the
scanned area at (0,-20) and (-15,10) coordinates.
Where polarimetry shows its potential in detecting
dangerous area is well shown in Figure 4. Once more, total
reflectivity level remains in the 55 dBZ range, but observation
of ZDR and LDR supports the evidence of a hail dominated
zone. Maximum value of ZDR do not exceed 0.3 dB, and it even
has negative value, -0.1 dB, which can be caused, other than
the tumbling motion of hail, by the Mie scattering effects for
larger stones. LDR rise up to a value of -18/-17 dB, indicating
a very high signal power in the VH channel (see Eq. 2).

IV.

REFERENCES
[1]

[2]
[3]

[4]

[5]
[6]

[7]

[8]

F. J. Yanovsky, Evolution and Prospects of Airborne Weather Radar

Functionality and Technology, 18th International Conference on
Applied Electromagnetics and Communications, 2005.
V.N. Bringi, and V. Chandrasekar, Polarimetric Doppler Weather
Radar, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
-0 6WUDND '6 =UQL DQG $9 5\]KNRY %XON +\GURPHWHRU
Classification and Quantification Using Polarimetric Radar Data:
Synthesis of Relations, J. Appl. Meteor. 39, 2000, pp. 13411372.
S.E. Koch, The Use of Simulated Radar Reflectivity Fields in the
Diagnosis of Mesoscale Phenomena from High-Resolution WRF Model
Forecasts, 32nd Conference on Radar Meteorology, 2005.
P.C. Waterman, Scattering by Dielectric Obstacles, Alta Frequenza
(Speciale), 1969, pp. 348352., 1969.
M. Mishchenko, L.D. Travis, and A.A. Lacis, Scattering, Absorption
and Emission of Light by Small Particles, Cambridge University Press,
2nd ed., 2005.
A. Lupidi, C. Moscardini, F. Berizzi, M. Martorella, "Simulation of XBand Polarimetric Weather Radar Returns based on the Weather
Research and Forecast Model", 2011 IEEE Radar Conference, Kansas
City, 2011.
Britt, C., L., Kelly, C., W., Users Guide for an Airborne Doppler
Weather Radar simulation (ADWRS), Center for Aerospace
Technology, Tech. Rep. 7473/029-05S NASA, 2002.

CONCLUSIONS

It is clear that even in an uniform reflectivity phenomenon,

in both its horizontal and vertical structure, polarimetric data
processing can provide useful information for feature
discrimination and thus to reduce risk due to solid particles
impact. Even if the beamwidth is three degrees, combining the
signal received from partially overlapping azimuthal sectors it
is possible to have information which permit to make a good
discrimination and resolve different scattering behaviour.
Further studies will be conducted to evaluate returns from very
long distances. Long ranges suffer also from heavy attenuation
which can be compensated using an additional polarimetric
variable, the Specific Differential Phase (KDP), that is also a
good estimator for rainfall rate. This accurate risk assessment
is not possible with single-polarization avionic radar, so the
only action that is taken is making long detours, even if the
phenomenon would pose no threats.

Proceedings of ESAV'11 - September 12 - 14 Capri, Italy

75

1 (a)
2 (a)

1 (b)

2 (b)

1 (c)

2 (c)

Figure 1: Mixing Ratio: (a) 450 m (b) 1000 m (c) 2000 m altitude

Figure 2: 450 m altitude: (a) Total Reflectivity, (b) ZDR, (c) LDR

76

Proceedings of ESAV'11 - September 12 - 14 Capri, Italy

3 (a)

4 (a)

3 (b)

4 (b)

3 (c)

4 (c)

Figure 3: 1000 m altitude: (a) Total Reflectivity, (b) ZDR, (c) LDR

Figure 4: 2000 m altitude: (a) Total Reflectivity, (b) ZDR, (c) LDR

Proceedings of ESAV'11 - September 12 - 14 Capri, Italy

77