Abstract
A novel weather radar system with distributed phased-array front-ends was developed. The specifications and preliminary data synthesis of this system are presented, which comprises one back-end and three or more front-ends. Each front-end, which utilizes a phased-array digital beamforming technology, sequentially transmits four 22.5°-width beams to cover the 0°–90° elevational scan within about 0.05 s. The azimuthal detection is completed by one mechanical scan of 0°–360° azimuths within about 12 s volume-scan update time. In the case of three front-ends, they are deployed according to an acute triangle to form a fine detection area (FDA). Because of the triangular deployment of multiple phased-array front-ends and a unique synchronized azimuthal scanning (SAS) rule, this new radar system is named Array Weather Radar (AWR). The back-end controls the front-ends to scan strictly in accordance with the SAS rule that assures the data time differences (DTD) among the three front-ends are less than 2 s for the same detection point in the FDA. The SAS can maintain DTD < 2 s for an expanded seven-front-end AWR. With the smallest DTD, gridded wind fields are derived from AWR data, by sampling of the interpolated grid, onto a rectangular grid of 100 m ×100 m ×100 m at a 12 s temporal resolution in the FDA. The first X-band single-polarized three-front-end AWR was deployed in field experiments in 2018 at Huanghua International Airport, China. Having completed the data synthesis and processing, the preliminary observation results of the first AWR are described herein.
摘要
本文介绍了一个具有多个分布式相控阵前端的新型天气雷达系统的研发,并介绍了该雷达的系统参数及初步外场试验数据分析。该新天气雷达系统包括一个雷达后端和至少三个雷达前端。每个雷达前端采用相控阵数字波束形成技术,在俯仰上约0.05秒内依次发送4个22.5°宽波束覆盖0°至90°仰角扫描,通过机械扫描完成0°至360°方位扫描,12秒即可完成一次体扫数据更新。三个前端按照锐角三角形部署,每个三角形布局形成一个精细检测区。由于相控阵前端的三角形部署和独特的方位同步扫描策略,将该雷达命名为阵列天气雷达。雷达后端严格按照精细检测区的方位同步扫描规则控制三个前端进行扫描,确保三个前端之间的数据时间差小于2秒。方位同步扫描可以保持具有七个雷达前端质检的数据时间差小于2秒。阵列天气雷达可以提供空间最小网格为100米×100米×100米的水平风场产品及强度场产品,产品时间分辨率为12秒。2018年,在我国长沙黄花国际机场安装了国内第一部X波段、具有三个单偏振雷达前端的阵列天气雷达,并开展了外场观测试验,本文给出了这部阵列天气雷达对降水过程的初步观测结果。
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Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to Professor Zhenhui WANG from Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology and Professor Xiaoyang LIU from Peking University for valuable suggestions; to Eastone Washon Science and Technology Ltd. for providing the AWR for field experiments; to graduate students Fangping LI, Wanyi WEI, and Yu LI from Chengdu University of Information Technology for their dedicated work on data collection and graphic production; and to Chuan LUO, Caiwen REN, Jingyi SUN, Shuyu ZHANG, Siwei LV, Wen YANG and others from Eastone Washon Science and Technology Ltd. for their dedicated work on AWR data collection and processing. This work is supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant No. 31727901).
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Article Highlights
• Combining the advantages of a phased-array technology and radar networks, a new phased-array weather radar system (AWR) with 100 m ×100 m ×100 m gridded wind fields at a 12 s temporal resolution is introduced.
• AWR comprises one radar back-end and three or more distributed radar front-ends at different locations.
• By using a unique synchronized azimuthal scanning (SAS) rule, the data time differences (DTD) among the three frontends of the AWR is less than 2 s for the same detection point in a fine detection area (FDA).
• With 12 s volume-scan time, the AWR can provide continuous reflectivity and synthesized horizontal wind fields every 12 s in the precipitation events.
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Zhen, X., Ma, S., Chen, H. et al. A New X-band Weather Radar System with Distributed Phased-Array Front-ends: Development and Preliminary Observation Results. Adv. Atmos. Sci. 39, 386–402 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-021-1114-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-021-1114-y
Key words
- phased-array weather radar
- multiple radar front-ends
- synchronized azimuthal scanning (SAS)
- data time differences (DTD)
- wind fields