Title
The NASA High-Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler
Abstract
The High-Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (HIWRAP) is a dual-frequency (Ka- and Ku-bands), dual-beam (30° and 40° incidence angles), and conical scanning Doppler radar designed for operation on the NASA high-altitude (~19 km) Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial System. HIWRAP was developed under the support of the NASA Instrument Incubator Program for studies of tropical storms and severe weather events. It utilizes solid-state transmitters along with a novel transmit and receive waveform scheme that results in a system with compact size, light weight, less power consumption, and lower cost compared to radars currently in use for precipitation and Doppler wind measurements. By combining volume backscattering measurements at Ku- and Ka-bands, HIWRAP is capable of imaging radar reflectivity and 3-D wind fields in clouds and precipitation. In addition, HIWRAP is also capable of measuring surface winds in an approach similar to SeaWinds on QuikSCAT. HIWRAP operating frequencies are similar to those used by the NASA Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar, making it suitable for providing airborne validation data for the GPM mission. This paper describes the scientific motivation for the development of HIWRAP as well as the system hardware, aircraft integration, and recent flight activities. Data from recent science flights are also presented.
Year
DOI
Venue
2016
10.1109/TGRS.2015.2456501
Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions
Keywords
DocType
Volume
atmospheric measuring apparatus,atmospheric techniques,clouds,rain,remote sensing by radar,storms,wind,3-D wind fields,Doppler wind measurements,GPM mission,Global Precipitation Measurement airborne validation data,HIWRAP development,HIWRAP operating frequencies,High-Altitude Imaging Wind Rain Airborne Profiler,Ka-bands,Ku-bands,NASA GPM Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar,NASA HIWRAP,NASA Instrument Incubator Program,NASA high-altitude Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial System,conical scanning Doppler radar,imaging radar reflectivity,novel transmit-receive waveform scheme,precipitation measurements,severe weather events,solid-state transmitters,surface winds,tropical storms,volume backscattering measurements,Clouds,dual-frequency,imaging,precipitation,radar,scanning,wind
Journal
54
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
1
0196-2892
2
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.64
4
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Lihua Li141.44
Gerald M. Heymsfield2154.68
Carswell, J.342.07
daniel h schaubert431.18