New Cloud Radar to Join Mobile Facility on Graciosa Island

 
Published: 31 January 2009
These schematics illustrate the rotational capabilities of the new scanning radar. Much like an operational weather radar, the design allows the antenna to scan any portion of the sky; quite a departure from the one-directional beam of traditional ARM cloud radars. (illustration courtesy of ProSensing, Inc.)
These schematics illustrate the rotational capabilities of the new scanning radar. Much like an operational weather radar, the design allows the antenna to scan any portion of the sky; quite a departure from the one-directional beam of traditional ARM cloud radars. (illustration courtesy of ProSensing, Inc.)

In December, the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) completed an 8-month deployment in China and is now on its way to the Azores for a 20-month field campaign on Graciosa Island in the Atlantic Ocean. The upcoming campaign is scheduled to begin in May and last through December 2010. For a major portion of this deployment, the AMF will host a new scanning cloud radar for a side-by-side operational comparison with the W-band ARM Cloud Radar (WACR) that is part of the baseline AMF instrument suite. The new Scanning W-band ARM Cloud Radar (SWACR) is intended to be part of the second AMF, which is currently under development.

The scanning radar is a modification to the WACR that operated from June 2005 through September 2008 at the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. It was removed from service there to undergo the complex upgrades for scanning capabilities. ARM’s lead radar engineer is working closely with ARM researchers at McGill University to develop scanning patterns that will be used for a variety of cloud types. The modified radar is expected back at the SGP site for several months of testing beginning in April, prior to shipment to the Azores.

The new scanning capability is expected to provide insights into the 3D structure of clouds on a continuous basis. A replacement for the SGP WACR is not planned; the millimeter wave cloud radar will continue to provide cloud property data from the SGP site.