Impact of radar tilt and ground clutter on wind measurements in clear air

From geometrical considerations, the optimum tilt angle for a meteorological radar at which the best possible vertical resolution results is derived. This optimum angle is a compromise between the effects of beam divergence and range gate spacing. For typical S-band radar parameters, this optimum tilt angle is found to be about 7°. However, wind analyses at this tilt angle were found not to be accurate in practice because of ground clutter contamination, and suboptimal angles need to be used. Most of the ground clutter was found to be sensed in the radar beam sidelobes. The data presented here imply that ground clutter is a serious contaminant at tilt angles as high as 45°. For clear-air wind profiling in the boundary layer, the impact of ground clutter contamination increased as the tilt angle was increased. Data presented from four radars [the Goodland, Kansas, Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D); the University of Oklahoma's Doppler on Wheels; NCAR's S-band dual-polarization Doppler radar (S-Pol); and NSSL's Cimarron] suggest that a fairly narrow range of tilt angles from 1° to 2° is generally acceptable for wind profiling of the boundary layer in clear-air conditions. Tilt angles outside this range lead to significant systematic errors, primarily from ground clutter contamination. © 2005 American Meteorological Society.