¶ Scanning ARM Cloud Radar (SACR)
¶ General Overview
The SACR is the general term for the ARM Scanning Cloud Radars. Each SACR will be composed of 2 radars at different wavelengths. For more information on wavelengths and the operation of radar, see General Information on Radar. SACR's have been deployed at
- SGP C1 (Ka/W)
- NSA C1 (Ka/W)
- TWP C1 (Ka/X)
- TWP C3 (Ka/X)
- AMF2 (Ka/X)
- AMF1 (Ka/W)
These radar operate in 3 distinct modes, vertically pointing (VPT), normal horizontal scans (PPI), range-height scans (RHI). Each of these scans have 4 different types of data, reflectivity, doppler velocity, spectral width, linear depolarization ratio. The definition of the scans and variables can be found in the general information on radar section.
¶ Data
¶ Diagnostic Data
The diagnostic image contains 6 different plots on the different diagnostic data.
- Plot 1: Status flags - These are not supposed to be tripped, but have been tripped constantly lately and do not seem to affect data quality.
- Plot 2: Receiver Gain - If the power radiated is redistributed to provide more radiation in one direction, then this results an increase of the power density in direction of the radiation. This is gain. It should not change a lot.
- Plot 3: Temperatures - These are temperatures of different components in the radar. They should follow the same trend as each other.
- Plot 4: Remote Temperature and Humidity - Temp and RH on the antenna
- Plot 5: Voltages - Different voltages. These should stay constant.
- Plot 6: Local Temperatures - Temperature inside the radar enclosure.
¶ Vertical Point
The data for the vertical point scans are not continuous. The scans last 15-30 minutes and occur in intervals. The time between these scans are used for the other scan modes.
- Plot 1: Reflectivity
- Plot 2: Mean Doppler Velocity
- Plot 3: Spectral Width
- Plot 4: Linear Depolarization Ratio
¶ Range Height Indicator (RHI)
There are multiple different types of RHI scans. If there are sectors missing in the design, that may be by design. These data will be displayed in movies.
¶ Planned Position Indicator
¶ Radar-Lidar-Precip Comparison Plots
