Retrieval of Kinematic Fields Using a Single-Beam Airborne Doppler Radar Performing Circular Trajectories

Abstract

The present study is devoted to new analyses of single-beam airborne Doppler radar data referred to as SAVAD (single-beam airborne velocity?azimuth display) and double SAVAD. These techniques permit processing of Doppler radial velocities from circular trajectories performed by the aircraft. As in the VAD and double VAD analyses for ground-based radars, these SAVAD and double SAVAD analyses permit diagnosis of crucial mesoscale kinematic and thermodynamic parameters such as the horizontal wind, its horizontal divergence, its stretching and shearing deformations, the vertical air motion, the mean fall velocity of the hydrometeors, the mesoscale vertical vorticity, and horizontal gradients of pressure and temperature perturbations. These analyses are mathematically described. An application of the method to simulated data and to a real dataset extracted from the TOGA COARE database is also presented.