Detection and Estimation of Radar Reflectivity from Weak Echo of Precipitation in Dual-Polarized Weather Radars

In operational weather radar, precipitation echoes are often weak when compared to the underlying noise. Coherence properties of dual polarization can be used for enhancing the detection and for the improved estimation of weak echoes of precipitation. The enhanced detectability results from utilizing coherent averages of precipitation signals, while the uncorrelated noise vanishes asymptotically, explicit in the off-diagonal element Rhv of the echo covariance matrix. In finite sums, the noise terms as well as the uncertainties associated with them are suppressed. A signal can be detected in weaker echo by an analytically derived censoring policy. The coherent sums are readily available as the cross-correlation function of the antenna voltages H and V, which estimates Rhv in the mode of simultaneous transmission and reception. The magnitude of Rhv is a consistent estimate of the copolar echo power, leading to the copolar radar reflectivity of precipitation, which refers to the geometric mean of the reflectivities in H and V polarizations. Because of the intrinsic noise suppression, estimates of the copolar reflectivity are, in relative terms, more precise and more accurate than the corresponding estimates of reflectivity in specific channels, for weak signals of precipitation. These aspects are discussed quantitatively with validation of the key features in real conditions. The advances suggest for dedicated dual-polarization surveillance scans of weak echo of precipitation.