Terrain-induced Rotor Experiment (T-REX) 1 March - 30 April 2006, Bishop-Independence, California Wyoming Cloud Radar Data Status Report Content: General Notes WCR configuration Radar Status/Problems Calibration Notes Data File Information Terminology and other notes ................................................................................ General Notes: * WCR raw data is archived and available on DVD disks. Quicklooks, dataquality, and calibration data is also recorded on these disks. Radar processed data files in NetCDF format are available usually within 2 months after the conclusion of the experiment (preliminary version may be available earlier). The NetCDF files are available via the Internet or on DVD disks. * Quick look images of co-pol reflectivity for all the flights are stored on the project WCR web site in their corresponding directories(mmmDD) as pdf files. ................................................................................ WCR configuration: WCR was installed on UWKA with a 3-antenna configuration: Antenna 1 2,and 4 no polarization capability (for more see www-das.uwyo.edu/wcr); Antenna ports are: Ant1 (side/up) - H1, Ant2(near nadir) - V2, Ant4(down-forward) - H2; H/V stands for the receiver used (there are 2 receivers). Cross-channels (HXVX and VXHX channels) have no meaning for this configuration. Ant. 1 uses UWKA radar mirror wing to direct the radar beam Side or Up. The radar mirror events are recorded in the King Air data files. Mirror switching times are extracted in ascii files and placed under their corresponding flight day directories(file: KAyyyymmdd.hhmmss_hhmmss.mirror) When the mirror file is not present a single positon (up or side) has been used during the flight. ................................................................................ Radar Status/Problems * On March 19 it was found that the transmitter modulator is leaking oil. The modulator was removed from the radar and is being sent to ProSensing, Inc. for inspection and repair. * ProSensing found no apparent reason for the leak. The oil vessel was re-filled, resealed and tested for leak. On April 6 the modultor was installed and the radar tested on the ground. * On April 15 after 1-1.5 hours into the flight LArry Oolman reported Fault 1. Initially after reseting the fault the transmitter worked for a while but progressively it started faulting more often and eventually the fault was constant. The conditions in the cabin were fairly warm with temperatures from the radar gauges reaching 100F. The airconditioning could not cool down the radar significantly. After landing I did several tests and the transmitter failted every time with 1-5 min running before the fault. The EIA controller internal LED indicator for all cases but one showed too high body current. The tube temperature indicator was between 85 anf 79 F during the tests. The next morning (April 16) with temperatures below 65F the transmitter worked fine for 20 min without actuallt triggering the tube and another 20-25 min with triggering the tube (10 min NO TURBO and 15 min with TURBO) * Starting with the April 9 flight the IRIG card (currently the KA spare one) have had occasional timing glitches. * Apr 21: Fault 1 occured repeatedly ................................................................................ Calibration notes: **************************************************************************** Power Calibration: * Calibration constants for this experiment as of 17 Jan 2006 Calibration constants (250 ns pulse, 5 MHz IF filter, dynamic range > 70 dB; for 500 ns pulse subtract 3.5 dB): Ant. 1 (side/up), HHcal1 = 49.5 Ant. 2 (nadir), VVcal2 = 50.5 Ant. 4 (down-fore), HHcal2 = 55.0 Calibration constant precision over the whole dynamic range (no less than 70 dB) is about +-1.0 dB for both receivers The absolute accuracy of the calibration constants for side/up and nadir antennas is estimated to be around +-2.5 dB (based on the overall variability of the calibration constants and the expected drift in the receivers and transmitted power). Transmitted power drift is estimated to be in the order of 1 dB for less than 2 hour flight and no more than 1.5 dB for longer flights. Receiver gain drift is estimated to be less than 1 dB. The accuracy of the calibration constants for slanted antennas (side-forward and down-forward) is not well established. Cloud data are used for relative calibration of these antennas w.r.t. side and nadir antennas. Slanted antennas are mostly intended for Doppler velocities. Cross-channel Isolation > 50 dB Antenna Coupling Separation: better than 50 dB; weak coupling between side and nadir antenna is possible for strong(close range) surface returns) * Calibration constants used for quick look images: Ant. 1 (side/up), calHH1 = 49.5 @ 250ns Ant. 2 (nadir), calVV2 = 50.5 @ 250ns Ant. 4 (down-fore), calHH2 = 55.0 @ 250ns **************************************************************************** Beam angles calibration: * Unit beam angles(in AC coordinates) for this experiment as of 18 Nov 2005 X(along AC) Y(right wing) Z(down) Ant. 1 (up): 0.052336, 0.000000, -0.9986295 Ant. 1 (side): -0.020885, 0.999784, -0.000000 Ant. 2 (nadir): -0.05512, 0.000235, 0.99848 Ant. 4 (down-fore): 0.4382, 0.004099, 0.89887 The accuracy of the beam angles for 'up' beam are not well known due to lack of calib data. For all other beams, an average bias between -0.5 and +0.5 m/s may be present in the Doppler velocities after removing the AC motion from the measured Doppler. **************************************************************************** ................................................................................ WCR Data File Information: ************************************************************************** feb28: (crew: Drew,Armi,Oolman,Wechsler) Test Flight Total data: 471 MB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 104M W2006-02-28-21-47-58 pp4/250 D,D 128M W2006-02-28-21-57-33 pp4/250 D,D almost no returns 38M W2006-02-28-22-20-39 pp4/250 D,D 70M W2006-02-28-22-28-25 pp4/250 U,D 31M W2006-02-28-22-37-02 pp4/250 U,D 102M W2006-02-28-22-40-07 pp4/250 U,D almost no returns ************************************************************************** mar02a: (crew: Drew,Armi,Oolman,Wechsler) No radar data (clear weather) mar02b: (crew: Drew,Armi,Oolman,Wechsler) Total data: 1.3 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 97M W2006-03-02-23-21-08 pp4/250 D,D 267M W2006-03-02-23-30-19 pp4/250 D,D 213M W2006-03-02-23-59-03 pp4/250 U,D 248M W2006-03-03-00-18-46 pp4/250 U,D 91M W2006-03-03-00-42-09 pp4/250 U,D 194M W2006-03-03-00-51-07 pp4/250 D,D 158M W2006-03-03-01-09-03 pp4/250 D,D hhnoise(4th pulse)interf.(01:21) 35M W2006-03-03-01-42-13 pp4/250 D,D ************************************************************************** mar05: (crew: Drew,Grubisic,Oolman,Glover) Total data: 1.8 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 143M W2006-03-05-22-11-06 pp4/250 D,D h4noise interf.,likely from grnd(22:12-22:23) 304M W2006-03-05-22-24-55 pp4/500 D,D 5MHz IF, frequent 2nd trip echo from ground interf: h4noise(22:26-31,22:46-54) v2noise(22:26-42,22:50-52) 125M W2006-03-05-23-01-56 pp4/500 U,D 5MHz IF 145M W2006-03-05-23-16-23 pp4/500 U,D 5MHz IF 111M W2006-03-05-23-33-03 pp4/500 U,D 5MHz IF 268M W2006-03-05-23-45-54 pp4/500 U,D 5MHz IF 250M W2006-03-06-00-17-13 pp4/250 U,D 149M W2006-03-06-00-47-49 pp4/500 U,D 5MHz IF 285M W2006-03-06-01-05-04 pp4/500 U,D 5MHz IF, no useful cloud return ************************************************************************** mar09a: (crew: Drew,Grubisic,Oolman,Glover) Total data: 1.3 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 460M W2006-03-09-16-44-07 pp4/250 U,D interesting; 2nd trip ground 104M W2006-03-09-17-26-44 pp4/250 U,D 325M W2006-03-09-17-36-21 pp4/250 U,D 177M W2006-03-09-18-06-28 pp4/250 U,D 131M W2006-03-09-18-41-47 pp4/250 D,D 50M W2006-03-09-19-14-13 pp4/250 D,D no signal from clouds mar09b: (crew: Drew,Grubisic,Oolman,Glover) Total data: 1.6 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 181M W2006-03-09-23-02-47 pp4/500 D,D 191M W2006-03-09-23-24-31 pp4/500 D,D 82M W2006-03-09-23-47-52 pp4/250 D,D 335M W2006-03-10-00-00-25 pp4/250 D,D 236M W2006-03-10-00-35-47 pp6/250 U,D,D KA data crashed 00:50-57, time stamps jumps during this time 263M W2006-03-10-00-57-49 pp6/250 U,D,D ground return in Up beam exceed Up-Down antenna isolation 184M W2006-03-10-01-22-25 pp6/250 U,D,D 118M W2006-03-10-01-39-37 pp4/250 U,D,D ************************************************************************** mar14a: (crew: Drew,Armi,Oolman,Billings) Total data: 1.9 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 49M W2006-03-14-16-50-10 pp4/500 D,D 256M W2006-03-14-16-56-04 pp4/500 D,D 185M W2006-03-14-17-42-14 pp4/250 D,D 94M W2006-03-14-17-59-23 pp4/250 D,D no return from clouds 162M W2006-03-14-18-08-03 pp4/250 D,D 182M W2006-03-14-18-30-33 pp4/250 U,D 184M W2006-03-14-18-47-23 pp4/250 U,D 160M W2006-03-14-19-04-24 pp4/250 U,D 246M W2006-03-14-19-19-12 pp4/250 U,D trace of ground return in the Up 151M W2006-03-14-19-49-17 pp4/250 D,D 122M W2006-03-14-20-03-37 pp6/250 U,D,D 76M W2006-03-14-20-12-39 pp4/250 D,D very weak return from clouds 53M W2006-03-14-20-20-03 pp4/500 D,D weak return from clouds mar14b: (crew: Drew,Armi,Oolman, Mattegunta) Total data: 1.6 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 64M W2006-03-14-22-56-24 pp4/500 D,D 66M W2006-03-14-23-04-06 pp4/500 D,D 227M W2006-03-14-23-15-44 pp4/500 D,D 60M W2006-03-14-23-47-31 pp4/250 U,D 271M W2006-03-14-23-53-22 pp6/250 U,D,D 113M W2006-03-15-00-11-37 pp4/250 U,D trace of ground return in the Up 125M W2006-03-15-00-23-50 pp6/250 U,D,D 120M W2006-03-15-00-32-45 pp4/250 D,D 190M W2006-03-15-00-44-14 pp4/500 U,D 242M W2006-03-15-01-07-03 pp4/500 D,D 125M W2006-03-15-01-36-12 pp4/500 D,D ************************************************************************** apr08a: (crew: Fagerstrom,Doyle,French,Andreas Wieser) No radar data (clear weather) apr08b: (crew: Cooksey,Armi,French,Lukens) No radar data (clear weather) ************************************************************************** apr09: (crew: Cooksey,Armi,French,R.Smith) Total data: 1.2 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 78M W2006-04-09-22-16-47 pp4/250 D,D 2nd trip ground, no problem 533M W2006-04-09-22-27-56 pp4/250 D,D 2nd trip ground, small interf. interesting data 113M W2006-04-09-23-17-59 spp/250 U finite iso. ground leak,no problem time stamp glitcheas last 2000 profiles (KA data system crash at 23:54:51, profs:0-67773) 72M W2006-04-10-00-10-13 spp/250 U finite iso. ground leak,no problem 367M W2006-04-10-00-43-22 pp4/250 D,D 2nd trip ground, no problem 66M W2006-04-10-01-18-20 spp/250 U time stamp glitcheas last 2000 profiles (KA data system crash at 01:39:35, profs:0-39057) ************************************************************************** apr11: (crew: Cooksey,R.Smith,French,student) Total data: 1.5 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 152M W2006-04-11-16-53-15 pp4/500 D,D 509M W2006-04-11-17-12-57 pp4/250 D,D 94M W2006-04-11-18-00-34 spp/250 U 155M W2006-04-11-18-40-47 pp4/500 D,D 150M W2006-04-11-19-01-12 pp4/250 D,D 404M W2006-04-11-19-15-53 pp6/250 U,D,D 4.2M W2006-04-11-19-43-41 spp/250 U timestamp problem (KA data system crashed 19:44:19, profs:0,1161) ************************************************************************** apr15: (crew: Cooksey,R.Smith,Oolman,Martin) Total data: 526 MB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 144M W2006-04-15-21-57-11 pp4/500 D,D virtually no signal from clouds timestamp problem 81M W2006-04-15-22-11-24 pp4/250 D,D very weak return from mount.clds 136M W2006-04-15-22-29-43 pp4/500 U,D weak return from mount.clds(down ant) 55M W2006-04-15-22-45-26 pp4/500 U,D no return,timestamp problem 95M W2006-04-15-22-53-25 pp4/250 D,D weak return, mountain cap clouds 2.6M W2006-04-15-23-20-28 pps/250 U very weak signal, first Fault 1 5.8M W2006-04-15-23-23-41 pps/250 U very weak signal 8.2M W2006-04-15-23-32-59 pps/500 U no signal ************************************************************************** apr16a: (crew: Cooksey,R.Smith,Oolman,Susanne) Total data: 196 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 91M W2006-04-16-18-32-04 pp4/500 D,D timestamp 1s jump 106M W2006-04-16-18-41-42 pp4/250 D,D apr16b: (crew: Cooksey,R.Smith,Oolman,AlexReinecke) Total data: 429 MB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 93M W2006-04-16-22-22-35 pp4/500 D,D 89M W2006-04-16-22-32-53 pp4/250 D,D 93M W2006-04-16-22-53-43 pp4/250 D,D 7.7M W2006-04-17-00-23-30 pp4/500 D,D no return from clouds 108M W2006-04-17-00-25-41 pp4/250 D,D timestamp jump - corrected T2006-04-17-00-25-41 40M W2006-04-17-00-36-14 pp4/250 D,D ************************************************************************** apr21: (crew: Cooksey,Doyle,Oolman,Adam) Total data: 426 MB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 152M W2006-04-21-15-08-10 pp4/250 D,D 32M W2006-04-21-15-23-43 pp4/250 D,D 140M W2006-04-21-15-26-38 pp4/250 D,D 50M W2006-04-21-15-41-55 spp/250 U 28M W2006-04-21-15-59-10 spp/250 U no return from clouds 12M W2006-04-21-17-25-47 pp4/250 D,D 172640 Fault 1 (after 1750 prof) 14M W2006-04-21-17-32-46 pp4/250 D,D 173353 Fault 1 (after 2250 prof) ************************************************************************** apr26: (crew: Cooksey,Kuettner,Oolman,Thomas) Total data: 2.7 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 29M W2006-04-26-14-51-41 pp4/500 D,D 3.8M W2006-04-26-14-55-10 pp6/500 U,D,D only 23 range gates 503M W2006-04-26-14-56-53 pp6/250 U,D,D 2nd trip ground clutter 524M W2006-04-26-15-30-58 pp6/250 U,D,D timestamp 1s jump 15:38:51 241M W2006-04-26-16-11-31 pp6/250 U,D,D 108M W2006-04-26-16-27-33 pp6/250 U,D,D 424M W2006-04-26-16-34-50 pp6/250 U,D,D 44M W2006-04-26-17-03-24 spp/250 U weak trace of ground return coupled from the nadir port 243M W2006-04-26-17-18-55 pp4/250 U,D 332M W2006-04-26-17-42-22 pp4/250 U,D 271M W2006-04-26-18-13-11 pp4/250 U,D timestamp 1s jump 18:13:49 ************************************************************************** apr27: (crew: Cooksey,Grubisic,Oolman,?) Total data: 1.9 GB Alg/Pulse Antennas Notes 99M W2006-04-27-13-42-36 pp4/250 D,D very weak return 281M W2006-04-27-13-55-04 pp4/500 D,D weak return 147M W2006-04-27-14-45-46 pp4/250 D,D 160M W2006-04-27-15-03-07 pp6/250 U,D,D 84M W2006-04-27-15-15-49 spp/250 U ground coupling from nadir 172M W2006-04-27-15-47-14 pp6/250 U,D,D return(weak) from UP only 184M W2006-04-27-16-00-01 pp4/250 D,D very weak return 146M W2006-04-27-16-23-58 pp6/250 U,D,D no return from down antennas 215M W2006-04-27-16-33-42 pp6/250 U,D,D 388M W2006-04-27-16-51-06 pp6/250 U,D,D ground coupled in the UP return ************************************************************************** ................................................................................ Terminology and other notes: Terminology used to acknowledge data quality for each data file reported under Data file indormation: 1) SPIKES are defined as short lasting (less than a few secs), large excursions in positive or negative direction (higher than 2-3 dB). 2) ELEVATED NOISE (including short spikes) is defined as occasional change in the mean noise that exceeds 2-3 dB and lasts from fraction of a second to more than a minute. It is usually associated with ground hits and/or multi-trip echoes. It is observed for side looking mode only. 3) NOISE JUMPS/SPIKES (up to 10-20 sec). Probably some sort of short interference not necessarily in both channels and in some cases associated with the mirror position change or A/C radio communications at freqs close to 120MHz 3) NOISE DRIFT is up to 2dB slow drift in the noise channel; likely due to drift in the receivers gain. Usually it does not exceed 0.5 dB. 4) BAD DATA refer to corrupted data or improbable data behavior. 5) DATA SHIFT means that all data channels are shifted one range gate to the right for one or both of the DSPs. 6) DATA GAPS: gaps between profiles exceeding several times the average time interval between profiles 7) TIME STAMP ERROR: known fixed shift in the time stamps. 8) TIME JUMPS: sync problem in the time which results in time stamps jumps including negative jumps 9) DATA DISCONTINUITY: unexpected jumps in reflectivity occurring thru all range gates from one profile to another. 10) V/H-MISSING or V/H severely attenuated reffer to unidentified problem causing severe attanuation or lack of signal from a target Other Notes: * WCR data acquisition system (DAQ) records time stamps from the vxi IRIG card which is slaved to the master KingAir data system IRIG card. The recorded time stamps are GPS time (currently 14 sec ahead of UTC). * The zero range gate, when at 75 m, is contaminated with the transmitter pulse leakage which appears at levels as high as -35 dBm@500ns (+15 dBZ). On the other hand very stong returns at 0 and 1st range gates are slightly undervalued (1 dB or less) due to receiver protection switches still residually closed. This range is in the antenna far field for the SideUp (12") antenna. Far fields for the 18" and 15" down antennas are 132 m and 91 m, respectively. Thus for the bigger antennas the first few range gates may have larger calibration errors. * When in side looking mode and maximum unambiguous range of 7.5 km, the data can be contaminated from second trip echoes, mostly from surface. Caution should be exercised when analyzing side looks. * Average DSP jumps (data jumps between two consecutive profiles due to data acquisition DSP) are mostly near zero for low power returns but frequently high power return (as indicated by the leak) exhibit jumps as high as 1-2 dB and thus averaging at least two profiles is recommended to reduce calibration errors.