WEATHER RADAR APPARATUS AND RAINFALL RATE CALCULATION METHOD

• US 20110018757A1
• Filed: 06/29/2010
• Published: 01/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Wada, Masakazu, MIZUTANI, Fumihiko
• Granted Patent: US 8,188,906 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/26.R
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/951 ground based
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/003 Transmission of data between radar, sonar or lidar systems and remote stations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/025 involving the transmission of linearly polarised waves
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a weather radar apparatus includes a transmitting/receiving unit configured to simultaneously transmit radar waves of a horizontally polarized wave and a vertically polarized wave and receive reflected waves, a signal processing unit configured to perform dual polarization observation based on a reception output from the transmitting/receiving unit and calculate a received power of each polarized wave, an observation parameter calculation unit configured to calculate, based on the received powers, a first observation parameter having a first spatial resolution, and a second observation parameter having higher correlation with a rainfall rate than that of the first observation parameter and a second spatial resolution lower than the first spatial resolution, and a rainfall rate calculation unit configured to synthetically determine the rainfall rate based on the first observation parameter and the second observation parameter.

Claims

1. A weather radar apparatus comprising:

a transmitting/receiving unit configured to simultaneously transmit a radar wave of a horizontally polarized wave and a radar wave of a vertically polarized wave and receive reflected waves;

a signal processing unit configured to perform dual polarization observation based on a reception output from the transmitting/receiving unit and calculate a received power of each polarized wave;

an observation parameter calculation unit configured to calculate, based on the received powers, a first observation parameter having a first spatial resolution based on a beam width and a pulse width of each radar wave, and a second observation parameter having higher correlation with a rainfall rate than that of the first observation parameter and a second spatial resolution lower than the first spatial resolution; and

a rainfall rate calculation unit configured to synthetically determine the rainfall rate based on the first observation parameter and the second observation parameter.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the observation parameter calculation unit calculates a radar reflectivity factor (Z_H) of the horizontally polarized wave as the first observation parameter, and calculates a specific differential phase (K_DP) based on a differential phase (φ

_DP) of the received power as the second observation parameter, and

the rainfall rate calculation unit converts the specific differential phase (K_DP) into the first spatial resolution based on the radar reflectivity factor (Z), and calculates a rainfall rate (R(K_DP) [mm/h]) of the first spatial resolution from the converted specific differential phase (K_DP).

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein in the conversion, the specific differential phase (K_DP) is converted into the first spatial resolution based on a temporary rainfall rate (R(Z) [mm/h]) obtained from the radar reflectivity factor (Z).

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a filter unit configured to remove a high-frequency component of the differential phase (φ

_DP).

5. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a correction unit configured to correct an attenuation amount of the radar reflectivity factor (Z) with respect to a range using the differential phase (φ

_DP).

6. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a smoothing unit configured to smooth the rainfall rate (R(K_DP) [mm/h]) in an azimuth direction and range direction.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the observation parameter calculation unit calculates a radar reflectivity factor (Z_H) of the horizontally polarized wave as the first observation parameter, and calculates, as the second observation parameter, a specific differential phase (K_DP) based on a differential phase (φ

_DP) of the received power, and an average rainfall rate (R_ave [mm/h]) in each region of the second spatial resolution based on the specific differential phase (K_DP), and

the rainfall rate calculation unit estimates a relational expression between the radar reflectivity factor (Z) and a rainfall rate (R [mm/h]) based on the average rainfall rate (R_ave [mm/h]) and the radar reflectivity factor (Z), and calculates a rainfall rate (R [mm/h]) of the first spatial resolution using the estimated relational expression.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a filter unit configured to remove a high-frequency component of the differential phase (φ

_DP).

9. The apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a correction unit configured to correct an attenuation amount of the radar reflectivity factor (Z) with respect to a range using the differential phase (φ

_DP).

10. The apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a smoothing unit configured to smooth the rainfall rate (R(K_DP) [mm/h]) in an azimuth direction and range direction.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the observation parameter calculation unit calculates a radar reflectivity factor (Z_H) of the horizontally polarized wave as the first observation parameter, and calculates, as the second observation parameter, a specific differential phase (K_DP) based on a differential phase (φ

_DP) of the received power and an average rainfall rate (R_ave [mm/h]) in each region of the second spatial resolution based on the specific differential phase (K_DP), and

when a relationship between the radar reflectivity factor (Z) and a rainfall rate (R [mm/h]) is represented by

Z=B×

R^β

(B and β

are constants)

the rainfall rate calculation unit calculates the first constant (B) based on the radar reflectivity factor (Z), estimates the second constant (β

) included in the relational expression based on the first constant (B), the average rainfall rate (R_ave [mm/h]), and the radar reflectivity factor (Z), and calculates the rainfall rate (R [mm/h]) of the first spatial resolution using the relational expression based on the first constant (B), the second constant (β

), and the radar reflectivity factor (Z).

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the first constant is calculated based on table data which represents the radar reflectivity factor (Z) and the first constant (B) in correspondence with each other.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising a filter unit configured to remove a high-frequency component of the differential phase (φ

_DP).

14. The apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising a correction unit configured to correct an attenuation amount of the radar reflectivity factor (Z) with respect to a range using the differential phase (φ

_DP).

15. The apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising a smoothing unit configured to smooth the rainfall rate (R(K_DP) [mm/h]) in an azimuth direction and range direction.

16. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the observation parameter calculation unit calculates, as the first observation parameter, a radar reflectivity factor (Z_H) of the horizontally polarized wave, a radar reflectivity factor (Z_V) of the vertically polarized wave, and a differential reflectivity factor (Z_DR) based on the radar reflectivity factor (Z_H) of the horizontally polarized wave and the radar reflectivity factor (Z_V) of the vertically polarized wave, and calculates, as the second observation parameter, a specific differential phase (K_DP) based on a differential phase (φ

_DP) of the received power and an average rainfall rate (R_ave [mm/h]) in each region of the second spatial resolution based on the specific differential phase (K_DP), and

when a relationship between the radar reflectivity factor (Z_H) of the horizontally polarized wave and a rainfall rate (R [mm/h]) is represented by

Z_H=B×

R^β

(B and β

are constants)

the rainfall rate calculation unit calculates the first constant (B) based on the differential reflectivity factor (Z_DR), estimates the second constant (β

) included in the relational expression based on the first constant (B), the average rainfall rate (R_ave [mm/h]), and the radar reflectivity factor (Z_H) of the horizontally polarized wave, and calculates the rainfall rate (R [mm/h]) of the first spatial resolution using the relational expression based on the first constant (B), the second constant (β

), and the radar reflectivity factor (Z_H) of the horizontally polarized wave.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising a filter unit configured to remove a high-frequency component of the differential phase (φ

_DP).

18. The apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising a correction unit configured to correct an attenuation amount of the radar reflectivity factor (Z) with respect to a range using the differential phase (φ

_DP).

19. The apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising a smoothing unit configured to smooth the rainfall rate (R(K_DP) [mm/h]) in an azimuth direction and range direction.

20. A rainfall rate calculation method used in a weather radar apparatus which simultaneously transmits a radar wave of a horizontally polarized wave and a radar wave of a vertically polarized wave and receives reflected waves, comprising:

performing dual polarization observation based on a reception output of the reflected waves and calculating a received power of each polarized wave;

calculating, based on the received powers, a first observation parameter having a first spatial resolution based on a beam width and a pulse width of each radar wave, and a second observation parameter having higher correlation with a rainfall rate than that of the first observation parameter and a second spatial resolution lower than the first spatial resolution; and

synthetically calculating the rainfall rate based on the first observation parameter and the second observation parameter.