MAPR Multiple Antenna Profiler Radar William Brown National Center for Atmospheric Research Steve Cohn, Dave Parsons (Science) Eleanor Praskovskaya (Science) Mike Susedik (Hardware) Charlie Martin & Gordon Maclean (Software) Support from DOE’s ARM and VTMX Programs and NCAR / ATD

DBS

MAPR

MAPR compared with conventional DBS profilers Advantages MAPR can make a much faster wind measurement MAPR provides continuous measurements MAPR does not need mechanical phase switches Disadvantages MAPR requires 4 antennas and receivers Data analysis more sophisticated Less sensitivity so more powerful transmitter required

MAPR - Specs Transmitter Peak Power: 500W (soon to be upgraded to 4kW) Duty Cycle: 10 - 15% Receivers: 4 x Radian (soon to be replaced by PIRAQ) Antenna: standard Radian 4 panel, 64 element array (split in 4 for receiving) Beam Width: 8 deg (HWHM) Resolution: 60, 105, 210 m (depending on SNR) Typical range: 2 - 5 km (clear-air) Typical time resolution: 1 minute (15 sec in high SNR, 10 minutes in low SNR) Data: netCDF (raw & spectra) or consensus wind files Real-time wind analysis produces plots on the Web

MAPR MAPR with clutter screen NOAA BAO 300m tower

Last Night

MAPR wind measurements () Anemometer measurements (line) BAO tower (300m) Clear-air echoes Good agreement between MAPR and Anemometer wind measurements About 80% of measure-ments agree to 2m/s

Cold Front MAPR and tower observations Note the brief updraft (red) in clear-air ahead of the front MAPR can make continuous and rapid 3D wind measurements

Cold Front Note the strong downdraft, followed by a strong updraft at the leading edge of the front. The frontal passage at the surface was weak. The periodic up and down motions, which follow, suggests gravity waves.

Nauru99 MAPR operated for 1 month at sea for DOE/ARM’s Tropical Western Pacific campaign, Nauru99

Nauru99 MAPR Observations of squalls (rain & clear-air) Note the wind gusts (orange/red wind barbs) and updrafts (yellow/red) in clear-air around squalls

Turbulence Measurement MAPR can estimate turbulent intensity Doppler spectral width is related to velocity variance measured by a sonic anemometer

Overall goals for MAPR Rapid measurement of the 3-D wind Estimates of turbulent intensity Rapid Deployment Detection of three-dimensional winds and heat flux from applying spaced antenna techniques to radio acoustic sounding system (RASS) Incorporation of multiple wavelengths and FDI processing to detect and monitor the evolution of fine-scale refractivity layers