Comparison of Theoretical Biases in Estimating Polarimetric Properties of Precipitation With Weather Radar Using Parabolic Reflector, or Planar and Cylindrical Arrays

Abstract

Planar or cylindrical phased arrays are two candidate antennas for future polarimetric weather radar. These two candidate antennas have distinctly different attributes when used to make quantitative measurements of the polarimetric properties of precipitation. Of critical concern is meeting the required polarimetric performance for all directions of the electronically steered beam. The copolar and cross-polar radiation patterns and polarimetric parameter estimation performances of these two phased array antennas are studied and compared with that obtained using a dual-polarized parabolic reflector antenna. Results obtained from simulation show that the planar polarimetric phased array radar has unacceptable polarimetric parameter biases that require beam to beam correction, whereas biases obtained with the cylindrical polarimetric phased array radar are much lower and comparable to that obtained using the parabolic reflector antenna.

Phased-Array Radar System Simulator (PASIM): Development and Simulation Result Assessment

“…More importantly, as the array beam scanned away from the broadside, the bias increased, which is consistent with the two-way power ratio of horizontal and vertical patterns that is dependent on azimuth. The system bias values match the theoretical results in References [27,28], which further confirms that ATD requires calibration at each azimuth radial. Table 5.…”

High‐Isolation Low Cross‐Polarization Phased‐Array Antenna for MPAR Application

“…In a planar array antenna, it is possible to achieve a low cross‐polarization level while the beam steering is performed on principle planes; however, if the beam steering is required on off‐principle planes, having low cross polarization which would be acceptable for MPAR applications is almost impossible. Lei et al () show that at the maximum steering angle of a planar array antenna for weather application, the cross‐polarization level increases to −12.4 dB which is not acceptable for weather radar measurements. Based on weather radar requirements and deficiencies of the planar array antenna, a cylindrical polarimetric phased‐array antenna is designed and proposed for MPAR application.…”

Comparisons of weather and aircraft surveillance radar requirements to determine key features for a 10-cm multi-function phased array radar

“…If on-axis crosspolar radiation cannot be guaranteed to be 45 dB below the copolar peak, precise measurements of the amplitude and phase of the cross-polar field must be made for each of the electronically steered beam directions so that corrections can be made to remove ZDR bias [17] and [18]. However, if the cross-polar radiation is in phase or in counter phase with the copolar radiation (as it is for the geometrically induced crosspolar radiation of a MPAR with planar arrays [19]), the level of acceptable cross-polar radiation in a beam coaxial with the copolar beam is increased to -26 dB without Z DR bias being larger than 0.1 dB [11].…”