WSR-88D (NEXRAD)

Jackson Schultz
Choukri Nyon
About/Intro ● WSR-88D is an abbreviation for Weather
Surveillance Radar 88’ Doppler & NEXRAD is
short for NEXt generation weather RADar.
● Around 160 NEXRAD systems operate daily
across the United States and US territories.
● The data aggregated across the systems has
created one of the best weather detection
networks in the world.
● These systems play a huge role in minimizing
damage from severe weather such as
hurricanes and tornadoes.
● Most of these radars are operated by the
National Weather Service (NWS), and they can
operate in two modes given the specific
weather conditions in the vicinity of the radar.
Challenges ● One particular challenge in regards to NEXRAD

Detecting Weather systems is their “cone of silence” which is directly

above the radar as the maximum tilt is 20°.
● Flocks of birds/Other non weather objects may be
misinterpreted as precipitation.
○ Although with vertical polarization added
recently it allows for far better differentiation of
targets
● Ground clutter is also a significant challenge to
correctly interpreting data from the systems
○ In conjunction with baseline clutter maps of the
region surrounding the radar, the radial velocity
and spectrum width data are used to identify
ground clutter
● Fast paced storm systems also pose significant
challenges
○ NEXRAD is capable of several different VCPs,
allowing the system to obtain the most relevant
data to each weather situation
System Details Wavelength S band (10-11.1 cm)
● Swerling Case 1
Frequency 2.8-3.0 GHz ● Short pulse →
Velocity and
Peak Power 750 kW
Spectrum Width
Antenna Diameter 8.5 m (28 ft) Data
● Long pulse →
BeamWidth 0.95° Reflectivity Data
● These different
Rotation Rate 36° per sec parameters are
also correlated
PRF 320-1300 Hz
with the mode of
Pulse Length 1.57 & 4.7 µs operation
(Clear-Air &
Gain 45 dB Precipitation
Mode)
Range Resolution 0.25-1 km

Duty Cycle 0.002

WSR-88D Block
Diagram
Improvement
Factors

Despite varying the prf frequency, the Antenna

scanning is still the limiting factor.
 ● Recall that, in scanning Doppler Radars, the
observation area is broken into regions based
on beamwidth and range, known as “Range
Clutter Suppression Resolution Cells”
● When applying clutter suppression, these
regions are the relevant areas to be filtered
● Since clutter is mostly clustered unwanted
objects, like chaff and insects, their relative
velocity is essentially zero (typically <.97 knot)
● As such, the power returned by objects of near
zero radial velocity are suppressed.
● A Notch Filter is used to remove this clutter, the
parameters of which are Notch Width, Bypass
Map (Regions where clutter is found), and Notch
Width Selections (30dB to 50dB)
● The user can also manually determine regions
for clutter suppression.
● Typical Clutter Products are Clutter FIlter
Control (type of filtering used), Clutter
Likelihood Reflectivity/Doppler (Likelihood of
ground clutter actually being present in
regular/Doppler samples),
Tropopause Model
● The Tropopause is the interface between the
stratosphere and the troposphere.
● Different conditions can arise at this interface
which alter the propagation of radar signals
○ Stratospheric Intrusion
○ Double Tropopause
○ Single Tropopause
● These conditions affect the tropospheric
scattering as well as ducting.
● Modeling anomalous propagation through the
lense of tropospheric/stratospheric interference
is the only way to mitigate echos that obscure
the important data products.
● Tropospheric ducting occurs during stable, high
temperature weather which leads to high
refractive indexes in the atmosphere.
 ● Typically, Reflectivity is used as a means of
Differentiating measuring rain rate. Since reflectivity varies
with drop size, and rate of rainfall can vary even
Rainfall with similar drop size distributions, errors can
occur.
● Since this is an S-Band Radar (2.8 to 3 GHz
freq), attenuation from raindrops is not a
problem.However, due to decrease in power
intensity over range, rain that is farther away
yields reduced reflectivity measurements.
● To prevent errors due to high gain from hail and
other hydrometeors, a “Hail Threshold” is added,
typically set to 53dBZe (Decibels relative to
effective reflectivity).
● Similarly, the “Bright Band” (Region where snow
melts into water) has similarly high gain.To
compensate for this, the discontinuity in Ze
from the brightband is used to calculate a
“background” Ze that would exist in absence of
the brightband.
Data Patterns
Identifying
● The WSR-88D can produce approximately 95
different meteorological products that are either

Extreme Weather ●
base or derived products.
These products are used in various algorithms
to determine the likelihood of extreme weather.
● The Vertically Integrated Liquid Water (VIL)
algorithm is key in identifying the most
significant storms. (dBz → g/m-3)
● The purpose of the SCIT algorithm is identify,
track, and forecast the movement of these
storm cells.
● The Mesocyclone Detection Algorithm classifies
the storm data in 3D and finds rotation in the
cell.
● The Tornado Detection Algorithm (TDA) uses
velocity data to differentiate Tornado Vortex
Signatures (TVS) from a mesocyclone.
 ● Blind speeds occur when the phase shift from a
moving object’s return pulse is 360 degrees,
Blind Speeds giving the appearance of no motion.
● Ambiguities arising from velocity aliasing or
blind speeds can be mitigated by staggered
PRF’s and phase coding.
● Phase coding is process where a transmitted
pulse is associated with a specific identification
code. (SZ-2 algorithm)
● Staggered PRF’s take advantage of different
velocity measurements at the same location
and the WSR-88D uses its Multiple-PRF
Dealiasing Algorithm (MPDA) to find a velocity
value that satisfies the measurements from the
different PRFs.
● The MPDA and SZ-2 are used in conjunction to
produce accurate velocity measurements that
would otherwise be lost to aliasing.
● Although the SZ-2 algorithm is most useful at
low elevation angles where range folding and
ground clutter are likely.
 - http://opwx.db.erau.edu/faculty/mullerb/Wx365/NE

Sources
XRAD/nexrad.htm
- https://www.roc.noaa.gov/WSR88D/PublicDocs/NT
R96.pdf
- https://www.weather.gov/iwx/wsr_88d
- https://www.nap.edu/read/10394/chapter/11#71
- http://gridrad.org/
- https://www.ofcm.gov/publications/fmh/FMH11/f
mh11partC.pdf

- https://training.weather.gov/wdtd/buildTraining/pa
Any Questions? -
pers/goss/CLTRGOSS.pdf
https://www.roc.noaa.gov/wsr88d/PublicDocs/Publ
ications/Legacy_Clutter_paper.pdf
- https://acomstaff.acom.ucar.edu/liwen/papers/Ho
meyer_etal2014jgrd51251.pdf
- http://nwafiles.nwas.org/digest/papers/1996/Vol20No4/P
g26-Hunter.pdf

- https://roc.noaa.gov/WSR88D/PublicDocs/AppsDocs/alg
orithm99.pdf

- https://training.weather.gov/wdtd/buildTraining/Build10/d
ocs/B10_VCP121_design.pdf