W-Band (95 GHz) ARM Cloud Radar (WACR)
Instrument Categories: Cloud Properties
General Overview
The W-band Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program Cloud Radar (WACR) systems are zenith pointing Doppler radars that probe the extent and composition of clouds at 95.04 GHz. The main purpose of this radar is to determine cloud boundaries (e.g., cloud bottoms and tops). This radar reports estimates for the first three spectra moments for each range gate up to 15 km. The 0th moment is reflectivity, the 1st moment is radial velocity, and the 2nd moment is spectral width. Also available are the raw spectra files. Unlike the millimeter wavelength cloud radar (MMCR), the WACR does not use pulse coding and operates in only copolarization and cross-polarization modes.
Primary Measurements Taken
The following measurements are those considered scientifically relevant. Refer to the netCDF File Header Descriptions (Data Object Design Files) for the list of all available measurements, including those recorded for diagnostic or quality assurance purposes.
Available Datastreams
- wacr - W-band (95 GHz) ARM Cloud Radar
- wacrspeccmaskcopol - W-band (95 GHz) ARM Cloud Radar, filtered spectral data, co-polarized mode
- wacrspeccmaskxpol - W-band (95 GHz) ARM Cloud Radar, filtered spectral data, cross-polarized mode
- wacrspecmom - W-band (95 GHz) ARM Cloud Radar, spectral data
Sites / Facilities
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- Southern Great Plains (SGP)
- Central Facility, Lamont, OK (C1)
- ARM Mobile Facility (FKB)
- Black Forest, Germany (M1)
- ARM Mobile Facility (GRW)
- Graciosa Island, Azores, Portugal (M1)
- ARM Mobile Facility (HFE)
- Shouxian, Anhui, China (M1)
- ARM Mobile Facility (NIM)
- Niamey, Niger (M1)
Mentor(s)
Kevin Widener
(509) 375-2487
kevin.widener@pnl.gov
Karen Johnson
data analysis
(631) 344-5952
kjohnson@bnl.gov