%0 Journal Article
%T Retrieving 3D Wind Field from Phased Array Radar Rapid Scans
%A Xiaobin Qiu
%A Qin Xu
%A Chongjian Qiu
%A Kang Nai
%A Pengfei Zhang
%J Advances in Meteorology
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/792631
%X The previous two-dimensional simple adjoint method for retrieving horizontal wind field from a time sequence of single-Doppler scans of reflectivity and/or radial velocity is further developed into a new method to retrieve both horizontal and vertical winds at high temporal and spatial resolutions. This new method performs two steps. First, the horizontal wind field is retrieved on the conical surface at each tilt (elevation angle) of radar scan. Second, the vertical velocity field is retrieved in a vertical cross-section along the radar beam with the horizontal velocity given from the first step. The method is applied to phased array radar (PAR) rapid scans of the storm winds and reflectivity in a strong microburst event and is shown to be able to retrieve the three-dimensional wind field around a targeted downdraft within the storm that subsequently produced a damaging microburst. The method is computationally very efficient and can be used for real-time applications with PAR rapid scans. 1. Introduction Updrafts and downdrafts are the essential components of storms. Their strengths often determine the type and evolution stage of storms. Quickly detecting updrafts and downdrafts and estimating their strengths in storm wind fields will make timely and accurate assessments of hazardous weather conditions. It is thus desirable to develop an efficient method to retrieve both the horizontal and vertical winds, including updrafts and downdrafts, in real time from phased array radar (PAR) rapid scans of storms. A key advantage of PAR over Weather Surveillance Radar 1988-Doppler (WSR-88D) is the capability to rapidly and adaptively scan storms. With its agile electronic beam steering, the PAR scan strategy can be optimized on particular weather phenomena with the volume scan time reduced from minutes to seconds (Zrnic et al. [1], Torres et al. [2]). High spatial and temporal resolution volumetric radar data are often necessary to resolve very fine echo structures, their transient developments, and movements inside storms (Heinselman et al. [3]). Previous research also indicates that the retrieval errors can be reduced if the reflectivity and radial-velocity fields are sampled more frequently (Qiu and Xu [4], Shapiro et al. [5]). Since Doppler radar observations are limited mainly to reflectivity and radial-component velocity (along the radar beam) and there is no direct measurement of the remaining two wind components perpendicular to the radar beam, a two-dimensional simple adjoint (2D-SA) method was developed by Qiu and Xu [6] to retrieve the horizontal
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/amete/2013/792631/