An application of linear programming to polarimetric radar differential phase processing

Abstract

Differential phase and its range derivative KDP are of interest to several hydrological applications from weather radar systems. Despite the attractive qualities of polarimetric differential phase measurements, the usefulness of these radar measurements is potentially undermined as a consequence of measurement fluctuations and physical or beam geometry artifacts. This paper presents an application of linear programming for physical retrievals, here designed to improve estimates of differential propagation phase by allowing realistic physical constraints of monotonicity and polarimetric radar self-consistency. Results of the linear programming methods to the phase-processing problem are demonstrated at several common weather radar wavelengths (10, 5, and 3 cm). © 2013 American Meteorological Society.