Comparison and validation of 212.5 MHz Gauhati university stratosphere troposphere radar data with reference to radiosonde observation

A novel Stratosphere-Troposphere (ST) Radar at 212.5 MHz is installed at Gauhati University (GU), Guwahati (26.15°N, 91.66°E), India with the objective to study wind pattern over the region. This paper presents first time validation of this wind profiler data from 300 m to 15 km altitude in comparison with collocated GPS Radiosonde measurements. The radar wind data match very well with radiosonde observations both in magnitude and directions. The correlation coefficient for zonal and meridional winds are found to be 0.94 and 0.95, respectively. The standard deviation of difference between radar and radiosonde data for zonal and meridional wind is 1.87 and 1.90 ms⁻¹, respectively. The ST radar data are further classified as precipitation and non-precipitation cases and compared to radiosonde data. For precipitation cases the correlation coefficients of zonal and meridional wind are found to be 0.94 and 0.94, respectively, whereas the correlation coefficients for zonal and meridional wind in non-precipitation cases are 0.93 and 0.96, respectively. Besides, vertical wind is validated by analyzing its performance during precipitation event. These results align with other operational wind profiler radars, establishing the GU ST Radar as a reliable tool for providing high quality wind data.