Note on the capabilities of radar for measuring clouds, precipitation and sea state
Moore, R.K. (1965). Note on the capabilities of radar for measuring clouds, precipitation and sea state, in: Ewing, G.C. (Ed.) Oceanography from Space: Proceedings of Conference on the Feasibility of Conducting Oceanographic Explorations from Aircraft, Manned Orbital and Lunar Laboratories, held at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 24-28 August 1964. pp. 297
In: Ewing, G.C. (Ed.) (1965). Oceanography from Space: Proceedings of Conference on the Feasibility of Conducting Oceanographic Explorations from Aircraft, Manned Orbital and Lunar Laboratories, held at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 24-28 August 1964. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: Woods Hole. XXI, 469 pp., more
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| Abstract |
The capabilities of radar for measuring clouds and precipitation from the ground are exploited routinely in the U. S. by a network of Weather Bureau radar stations and by all commercial aircraft. A side-looking radar in a satellite can map these same phenomena with higher precision and on a world-wide basis. By using two or three frequencies properly chosen, the sea state, shipping, and bergs beneath the clouds may be mapped simultaneously with the clouds themselves, and precipitation is easy to distinguish. Even a simple 10 -20 lb. package used like an altimeter can be designed to observe precipitation beneath the satellite. It also (with a different frequency) can observe sea state, so that winds and evaporative rates may be inferred. The properties of an imaging radar for 3-dimensional portrayal of cloud and precipitation data are somewhat different from those for ground and surface mapping, but the same radar, with (perhaps) an antenna resonably large in vertical dimension (but not larger than planned horizontal dimension) can obtain this information by having its highest frequency operate in a cloud/precipitation mode on command. Without these complications it can still provide a 2-dimensional presentation with cloud thickness data from directly below. |
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