Real-time rapid refractivity retrieval using the national weather radar testbed phased array radar

A real-time rapid refractivity retrieval platform for the National Weather Radar Testbed Phased Array Radar (NWRT PAR) is currently being developed at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, USA. From our previous efforts in the 2007 KTLX refractivity experiment [1], a software module to produce refractivity products has been developed and will be ported over to the NWRT PAR this year for the Spring 2008 experiment campaign. One of the advantages of using the PAR is the ability to retrieve a refractivity map in an extremely short time. In this paper, refractivity map from different dwell times will be presented. Typical scans using 64 pulses are used as a reference for comparison. By extracting subsets of the 64 pulses, shorter dwell times can be simulated and it will be shown that refractivity can be retrieved reliably even with a 2-pulse dwell. For a 1 ms PRT, this is equivalent to retrieving a 90° sector scan every 180 ms.