Development of Radar Wind Profiler (RWP) and Accuracy Evaluation

레이더 연직바람 관측장비(Radar Wind Profiler) 개발 및 성능평가

This study introduces a domestically developed the Radar Wind Profiler (RWP) and evaluates its performance qualitatively and quantitatively. The newly developed RWP that was installed at the testbed site of the National Typhoon Center in Jeju on March 2021 consists of indoor and outdoor units. The RWP utilizes an active phased array antenna system with 256 elements arranged in a 16 × 16 grid, allowing continuous steering of beams for azimuth angles from 0° to 360° and zenith angles up to ±20°. Through in-house signal processing and quality control algorithms, Doppler power spectra and spectral moments are derived. Using the Doppler Beam Swinging (DBS) method, calculates horizontal and vertical winds. Intensive observations were conducted at the testbed site from June 20 to August 19, 2021. To optimize the quality control of RWP radial velocities, data from the high-mode observations over nine months (March to November 2021) were analyzed to determine quality control thresholds. The performance of RWP was validated by comparison with rawinsonde observations that are launched from June 20 to August 19, 2021. Results show high accuracy and reliability with root mean square errors (RMSE) of 0.99 m s^-1 for wind speed, 8.27° for wind direction, success operational ratio of 97.7%. The performance improved notably in the latter part of the observation period of rawinsondes. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and valid ratio of data tended to decrease with altitude, with an average valid ratio of 98.5% and an average SNR of 42.8 dB between 400 m and 3 km.