An ivap-based dealiasing method for radar velocity data quality control

Abstract

Dealiasing is a common procedure in radar radial velocity quality control. Generally, there are two dealiasing steps: a continuity check and a reference check. In this paper, a modified version that uses azimuthal variance of radial velocity is introduced based on the integrating velocity–azimuth process (IVAP) method, referred to as the V-IVAP method. The new method can retrieve the averaged winds within a local area instead of averaged wind within a full range circle by the velocity–azimuth display (VAD) or the modified VAD method. The V-IVAP method is insensitive to the alias of the velocity, and provides a better way to produce reference velocities for a reference check. Instead of a continuity check, we use the IVAP method for a fine reference check because of its high-frequency filtering function. Then a dealiasing procedure with two steps of reference check is developed. The performance of the automatic dealiasing procedure is demonstrated by retrieving the wind field of a tornado. Using the dealiased radar velocities, the retrieved winds reveal a clear mesoscale vortex. A test based on radar network observations also has shown that the two-step dealiasing procedure based on V-IVAP and IVAP methods is reliable.