Implementation of polarimetric capability for the WSR-88D (NEXRAD) radar

Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) is currently under development at the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL). This method involves simultaneous transmission of two linearly polarized signals, and reception and processing of horizontal and vertical components using separate receivers. One of the primary advantages of this technique is that it does not compromise existing characteristics of the WSR-88D radar. However, implementation of this method requires major hardware modifications to the Radar Data Acquisition (RDA) functional area. These modifications will be implemented and tested on the Research WSR-88D at the NSSL. This paper describes system architecture and characteristics of the new design.