Assessment of the Geometric and Temporal Errors Associated with Airborne Doppler Radar Measurements of a Convective Storm

Abstract

On 20 April 1984, the NOAA WP-3D aircraft, equipped with a Doppler radar in its tail, flew around a growing thunderstorm new Norman, Oklahoma. Doppler wind data was collected as the airplane flew six legs around the storm. During this time, the National Severe Storms laboratory (NSSL) dual-Doppler network collected data on the same storm. Different combinations of synthesis techniques were examined employing direct and pseudo-dual-Doppler observations from aircraft alone, and combinations of aircraft and ground-based Doppler radar. The effect of temporal resolution errors was assessed and related to uncertainties caused by geometric configuration. For this system, it was found that although the aircraft did provide useful data by extending the analysis to the region between the ground-based radars, the contribution was limited by the rapid evolution of the storm. Greater utility may generally be found for storms that evolve less rapidly.