Simulations of the concept of using a small nonscanning Doppler radar for wind shear detection

Abstract

The concept of using a small nonscanning Doppler radar, called the weather mini-radar, for automatically detecting and quantitatively measuring low-altitude wind shear along approach and departure paths to airport runways is introduced. This work focuses on the implementation of the weather mini-radar design on a general-purpose pulse Doppler radar computer simulation. This simulation uses microburst model data generated with the aid of a supercomputer as the input, and the output is used to test prototype automatic detection algorithms proposed for use with the weather mini-radar. Test results indicate that the weather mini-radar concept of automating wind shear detection and measurement is sound.<>