Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

EE 602: Radar Systems

Prof. Kushal Tuckley
Spring 2022

A Fuzzy Logic Method for Improved Moment

Estimation from Doppler Spectra
Cornman

GROUP NUMBER : 8
Hitesh Kumar-18D070013
Rajat Soni - 18D070022
Gaurav Kumar - 18D070047
Rishabh Gautam - 18D070060
A FUZZY LOGIC METHOD FOR IMPROVED MOMENT ESTIMATION FROM DOPPLER SPECTRA

Contents
1 Introduction 2

2 The NCAR improved moment algorithm (NIMA) 2

3 Addressing the moment estimation problem 2

3.1 Fuzzy logic algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.2 Global Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.3 An example problem: Extracting the atmospheric signal in the presence of ground clutter . . 3
3.4 Membership functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.5 Combining Membership values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.6 Feature Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

4 Moment Calculations 6

5 Results 7
5.1 Human Expert vs POP radial velocity estimates comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.2 Human Expert vs NIMA radial velocity estimates comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5.3 Comparison of vertical profiles of radial velocities for POP, NIMA and human expert . . . . . 9
5.4 Comparing first moment error probabilities for NIMA and POP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

6 Conclusions 9

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A FUZZY LOGIC METHOD FOR IMPROVED MOMENT ESTIMATION FROM DOPPLER SPECTRA

1 Introduction
The research introduces a novel method [the National Centre for Atmospheric Research Improved Moment
Algorithm (NIMA)], which may often provide correct moments even when spectral-level pollution is high.
This study uses local mathematical analysis paired with fuzzy logic and global image-processing techniques.
The basic concept is to breakdown the Doppler velocity–range coordinate space into local elemental units,
from which different mathematical values may be derived. The appropriate section of the Doppler spectra is
subsequently extracted using global image processing methods: the atmospheric wind signature area. From
the suitably detected atmospheric signal, the Doppler moments are computed.

2 The NCAR improved moment algorithm (NIMA)

We must replace the one-dimensional range-gated spectra with a two-dimensional picture to examine the
spectral data. The Doppler spectrum is regarded a two-dimensional curve, g(x), at each range, where x
represents radical velocity and g(x) represents signal strength at that radical velocity. For each segment
we filter data and compute the mathematical values using least square quadratic analysis. The atmospheric
features are then identified using a fuzzy algorithm, resulting in a ”atmospheric feature score.” Range coverage
and composite membership value of all points in a feature are two fields utilised in this stage. The atmospheric
feature is supposed to be the feature with the greatest score.

3 Addressing the moment estimation problem

Doppler wind profilers would be considerably more useful in automated, real-time applications if they could
produce quick (1–3 min) estimations of winds, wind shear, and turbulence. To meet these goals, two issues
must be tackled simultaneously: enhancing Doppler moment accuracy and raising the update rate and
accuracy of wind and turbulence predictions.Given algorithm to solve this problem is well tested and the
completely automated approaches discussed here can approach the level of ability of a human expert, making
them ideal for some real-time applications.

3.1 Fuzzy logic algorithms

Fuzzy logic has grown into a powerful tool for tackling difficult real-world issues. The capacity of fuzzy logic
algorithms to systematically resolve inherent ambiguities in measurement data, categorization, and pattern
recognition is their strength. While fuzzy logic algorithms have been used effectively in the engineering
sciences, their use in the atmospheric sciences has been restricted. The present implementation is based on
two main processes: fuzzification and composition, and is a fuzzy inference system variation. Fuzzification
is the initial stage, which converts measurement data into scaled, unitless values that represent the data’s
relationship or ”membership degree” to the desired feature. The composition phase systematically merges
the membership values from a variety of distinct data kinds. The application of a defined functional relation
or membership function quantifies the correlation between a data value and the degree to which that data
belongs to a given class.

3.2 Global Processing

It’s vital to remember that the membership functions are applied and the composition step is performed
at the point level. Before the feature-building stage, an image processing approach was performed to the
membership data. Density weighting is a technique for sharpening separate areas by dividing each point by
the (normalised) number of nearby points whose total membership value exceeds a certain threshold.

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A FUZZY LOGIC METHOD FOR IMPROVED MOMENT ESTIMATION FROM DOPPLER SPECTRA

3.3 An example problem: Extracting the atmospheric signal in the presence of

ground clutter
Ground clutter can be a serious source of data contamination, appearing as a large-amplitude signal centered
at zero velocity and extending for a number of ranges above the ground. Mathematically, the ground clutter
signal can be described as a set of points that 1) are close to symmetric around zero, 2) have large slopes
along the radial velocity axis (positive on one side of zero and negative on the other), 3) have small slopes
along the range axis, 4) have a large negative curvature along the velocity axis (in the proximity of zero
radial velocity), and 5) have small curvatures along the range axis. All these characteristics are similar in
ground clutter so fuzzy logic technique is well suited here, also global feature extraction techniques are also
required. the ground clutter exhibits large curvature values near zero radial velocity, which is quite distinct
from the curvatures associated with the atmospheric signal. Resultant error in the calculation of the first
moment will not be large in this case. the ground clutter signal exhibits much larger gradient values than
the atmospheric signal, although there are regions that have similar values. For the atmospheric feature and
especially for the ground clutter feature, it can be seen how the two derived fields supplement each other and
why both fields are required to fully characterize the features. The combination of these two disparate fields,
the curvature and the gradient, is accomplished through the use of the fuzzy logic membership functions.

3.4 Membership functions

Membership functions are the gradient, curvature and the slope of the clutter formed that can we used
to derive the differentiate between various mathematical quantities example, atmospheric signal or ground
clutter. In this example, two more membership functions for ground clutter detection are the distance from
zero radial velocity and the symmetry of the spectra around zero radial velocity. As a result of these cir-
cumstances, ground clutter and atmospheric membership functions for the magnitude of the gradient vector
may arise.

3.5 Combining Membership values

Now we will combine the membership values at each point to get the total membership value(MT for that
point. Typically, there are a large number of membership fields to combine. However, in the considered
example, the total membership value for ground clutter identification MTC ( X ) at a given point X in the
˜ the four membership
radial velocity–range coordinate space would be given by a linear combination of ˜ values.

C C
αG × MG C
(X ) + ακC × MκC (X ) + αD × MDC C
(X ) + αΩ × MΩC (X )
MTC (X ) = ˜ ˜
C + αC + αC + αC ˜ ˜
˜ αG κ D Ω

G: Gradient
κ: Curvature
D: distance
Ω: Difference

Similarly the total membership value for the atmospheric signal identification,MTA ( X ) , is given by
˜
A A A A
α × MG ( X ) + α κ × Mκ ( X )
MTA (X ) = G ˜A ˜
˜ αG + ακA

3.6 Feature Identification

Now we removes isolated, low-intensity features while leaving coherent, high-intensity features intact. If we
apply density weighing to the result of fig.2 , we get fig.3. We can see that the ground clutter signals has
been significantly attenuated. Now we will apply a peak-searching algorithm to the data in fig.3 This will
locate the correct region of atmospheric signals. We can use these peak locations with the original spectra in

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A FUZZY LOGIC METHOD FOR IMPROVED MOMENT ESTIMATION FROM DOPPLER SPECTRA

Figure 1: Contour plot of Doppler spectra (dB) as a function of radial velocity and range. A clearly
discernible ground clutter signal is centered at zero radial velocity, a point target (perhaps a bird) can be
seen on the left-hand side at 700–900 m, and the atmospheric signal can be seen on the right-hand side of
the figure. The stars are located where the peak-finding algorithm has computed the first moments and the
plus marks are located at 6 the spectrum width (square root of the second moment)

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A FUZZY LOGIC METHOD FOR IMPROVED MOMENT ESTIMATION FROM DOPPLER SPECTRA

Figure 2: Contour map of the total membership values for the atmospheric signal after density weighting.

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A FUZZY LOGIC METHOD FOR IMPROVED MOMENT ESTIMATION FROM DOPPLER SPECTRA

Figure 3: Candidate features derived from the density-weighted, atmospheric signal, total membership field

computing the moments. That is, these peaks in the total membership field could replace peaks calculated
directly from the spectra and then the moments would be calculated in the normal way.

4 Moment Calculations
Fig.4 shows what a typical spectra looks like with overlapping clutter and atmospheric signals. As per the
standard method, the starting point would be the peak of the clutter signals. We will keep following the signal
until the noise level. The intersection of noise levels with clutter signals define the cut-off velocities(V1 ,V2 ).
We will then calculate the moment using the standard method. The disadvantage here is that we are
overestimating the zeroth and the second moments. This will bias the first moment towards the clutter
signal. Using the fuzzy logic, we have already differentiated between the atmospheric and clutter signals.
We will use this to get over the disadvantages presented by the standard method.
The process adopted here has two steps-
• Start at the maximum of the atmospheric signal and follow it to the noise level. We would get the

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A FUZZY LOGIC METHOD FOR IMPROVED MOMENT ESTIMATION FROM DOPPLER SPECTRA

Figure 4: Expanded region of overlapping clutter and atmospheric signal (dark curve), including extrapola-
tion (light curve) of the atmospheric signal through the clutter. The noise level is indicated by the horizontal
dashed lines.

cut-off velocity V2 here.

• A point P is described as along a valley running almost parallel to range axis. Once you find the point
of intersection, move along the atmospheric signal down to the noise level. This will give us the left
hand cutoff velocity V˜1

5 Results
We begin by recalling that the aim of the paper is to provide algorithms that can model a human expert’s
methodology in estimating moments from Doppler spectra. As part of this, we shall now proceed by making
some quantitative comparisons:

• between moments produced by the standard Profiler Online Program (POP) and those produced by
human experts
• between first moments produced by NIMA and those produced by human experts
It is further noteworthy that the data used for these comparisons contains high levels of contamination and
is from complicated spectra. The two data-sets used are from:

• a 1299 MHz profiler at Sha Lo Wan, China; collected during June and July 1994.
• a 449 MHz profiler at Point Loma, California; collected in September 1995.

5.1 Human Expert vs POP radial velocity estimates comparison

The first point to remember here is that the POP algorithm does not distinguish between sources of moments;
it treats an atmospheric source the same way as contamination. Hence, there are erroneous outliers from the
y = x line because of contamination sources being accounted for. The POP alogorithm also did not account
for ground clutter which also led to some errors. A few differences also arose due to velocity aliasing. A
scatterplot showing comprehensive comparison is attached below:

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A FUZZY LOGIC METHOD FOR IMPROVED MOMENT ESTIMATION FROM DOPPLER SPECTRA

Figure 5: Scatterplot comparing human expert and POP first moment estimates for the combined dataset.
Ref. Cornman et. al.

5.2 Human Expert vs NIMA radial velocity estimates comparison

A scatterplot showing this comparison is attached below.

Figure 6: Scatterplot comparing human expert and NIMA first moment estimates for the combined dataset.
Ref. Cornman et. al.

The major takeaway from this comparison is the fact that there are significantly lesser outliers than in section
5.1, which is also evidenced by a significantly lower variance of 0.3m2 s−2 for NIMA against 2.2m2 s−2 for
POP. Though, we must remember that there are still some outliers even here, especially close to the y = 0
line. These are due to severe ground clutter.

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5.3 Comparison of vertical profiles of radial velocities for POP, NIMA and
human expert
This is done only for the Sha Lo Wan dataset while a cyclone was impacting the area. It is observed once
again that the NIMA estimates match the human expert’s calculations much better as compared to the POP
estimates. The reason for this is the presence of fuzzy-logic based dealiasing used in NIMA which is absent
in POP.
Further comparison of vertical profiles, but for data from subsection 3.3 shows more areas where the POP
algorithm seems to lack behind. It is observed that NIMA is quite robust in identifying the presence of point
targets as well as ground clutter, and classifies them as contaminants, while POP fails to do so. As a result,
NIMA again provides closer estimates to the human expert calculations.

5.4 Comparing first moment error probabilities for NIMA and POP
Finally, we are presented with an illustration to compare the probabilities of error for the two competing
algorithms, namely NIMA and POP. It is evident from the plot below that NIMA seems to provide far
lesser errors over a larger range of values, when compared with POP. We also note that the probability of
generating an outlier is larger for POP compared to NIMA. All these results are easily visible in the below
plot:

Figure 7: Comparing the error probabilities for NIMA and POP. Ref. Cornman et. al.

6 Conclusions
This paper introduces us to NIMA, a new spectral-level quality control algorithm that aims to model a human
expert’s estimates with the help of a variety of tools, including image processing, fuzzy logic and mathematical
synthesis. By comparing NIMA with a standard profiling system (POP) for highly contaminated spectra,
we observed that NIMA does very well in actually providing results that are close to a human expert’s
calculations, by significantly reducing the number of outliers. Finally, we also discuss that NIMA itself is
also in need to modifications and is still vulnerable to errors in some conditions. To make it more robust,
the inclusion of quality control and confidence metrics could be explored.

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