Evaluation of Meteorological Airborne Doppler Radar. Part II: Triple-Doppler Analyses of Air Motions

Abstract

This is Part II of a paper dealing with the capabilities and use of airborne Doppler radar to observe motions within storms. Part I deals with dual-Doppler analyses of convective storm structure, using airborne and combinations of airborne and ground-based Doppler radars. Part I also discusses basics of airborne Doppler radar data processing. This paper discusses the capabilities of the airborne Doppler radar when used with ground-based radars in a triple-Doppler radar group. The data analyzed consist of ground-based dual-Doppler radar observations of a severe, microburst-producing storm, and airborne Doppler radar observations of the same storm. Comparisons of a ground-based dual-Doppler analysis with the triple-Doppler analysis support the validity of the airborne data. It is concluded that airborne Doppler radar data are likely to make major contributions to kinematic analysis of storm structure and related research topics. Guidelines are given that describe the area within which airborne Doppler data can reliably be added to the ground-based dual-Doppler data.