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Recent developments in research to industry
Iain Reid1,2 and Bronwyn Dolman1,2
1ATRAD Pty Ltdwww.atrad.com.au
2University of Adelaide, Australia
atrad.com.au
ATRAD Company Overview
In 1993 we formed Adelaide Radar Systems (ARS) through the University of Adelaide’scommercialization company (Luminis Pty Ltd) to commercialize MF and VHF radar technologydeveloped in the University’s Physics Department. ARS was granted an open‐ended, exclusive,worldwide licence to commercialise this technology. In 1995 ARS was renamed AtmosphericRadar Systems (trading as ATRAD), incorporated, and spun‐out from the University. A 1995partnership agreement was terminated in 1997, and ATRAD commenced the development of anew generation of radar systems with a focus on modularity and scalability. The University ofAdelaide licence agreement was terminated in 2002, as all original University IP had beendiluted out. Since then, ATRAD has been an independent privately owned Australian company.
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ATRAD Company OverviewATRAD
• ATRAD Pty Ltd operates as both an R&D company, and a manufacturer of high‐quality atmospheric, ionospheric and meteor radar systems. It also supplies analysis software compatible with ATRAD and non‐ATRAD radar hardware, expertise in radar site selection and installation, and the routine monitoring and maintenance of radar systems.
atrad.com.au
Current Core TechnologyPartial Reflection Radar
• Medium and High Frequency (MF/HF) distributed transmitter pulsed radars for wind profiling at heights between 50 and 110 km above the Earth’s surface. Both Spaced Antenna (SA) and Doppler Beam Steering system (DBS) options provided.
Wind Profiling Radar
• Very High Frequency (VHF) pulsed radars for use in operational wind profiling for weather forecasting. Wind profiles for heights between 0.3 and 20 km provided. Both boundary Layer Troposphere (BLT) (0.3 – 10 km) and Stratospheric Tropospheric / Boundary Layer (ST/BL) (0.5 – 20 km) operational wind profilers produced.
VHF Atmospheric Radar
• VHF pulsed radars for atmospheric measurements at heights between 0.3 and 20 km and 60 to 100 km. Boundary Layer Troposphere (BLT), Stratospheric Tropospheric / Boundary Layer (ST/BL), and Mesospheric Stratospheric Tropospheric / Boundary Layer (MST/BL) radars produced.
Meteor Radar
• High Frequency (HF) and Very High Frequency (VHF) meteor detection radars for wind, temperature, and density profiling at heights between 75 and 115 km. These are arguably the most advanced and reliable meteor radars available today.
Ionospheric Radar
• Very High Frequency (VHF) Ionospheric radars for drifts and ionospheric structure from 100 to 400 km
Low Level Radar
• Ultra High Frequency (UHF) low level radar for the 0 to 3000‐m height region
atrad.com.au
Radar Systems Currently OfferedType Frequency Coverage Capability Number Produced
MF Partial Reflection Radar 1.8‐3.6 MHz 60‐100 km (day)80‐100 km (night)
Yes 25+
Meteor Radar 25 – 65 MHz 75—110 km Yes 25+
Mesosphere Stratosphere Troposphere (MST) Radar
45 – 65 MHz 0.5 – 20 km60 – 80 km (day)80 – 90 km (summer higher latitudes)
Yes 5 (higher latitudes, including the Arctic and Antarctic)
Stratospheric Tropospheric (ST) Radar
45 – 65 MHz 0.5 – 20 km Yes 15+
440 – 494 MHz 0.5 – 16 km Yes
Boundary Layer Troposphere (BLT) Radar
45 – 65 MHz 0.3 – 8 km Yes 15+
440 – 494 MHz 0.1 – 3 km Yes 2
Boundary Layer (BL) Radar 915 – 1300 MHz 0.1 – 3 km Yes
Ionospheric Radar 30 – 60 MHz 100 – 300 km Yes 7
atrad.com.au
SubsystemsTransmitters• Pulse transmitters for the MF/HF/VHF and UHF bands. Typical duty cycles of up to 15 %. Transceivers• This is a receiver system with an exciter for the MF to UHF bands. From 3 to 24 receiver options, and
GPS disciplined time and frequency are available. Remote Receiver Systems• The ATRAD Remote Receiving System is a standalone and complete receiving system with from three to
24 receivers for use with remote transmitters or radars operating in the MF, HF, VHF and UHF frequency bands. This allows for the design of complex multi‐station applications. Typical applications are ionospheric or meteor forward scatter in the upper atmosphere, and wind profiler forward scatter in the lower atmosphere.
Display and Analysis Software• Software for the control of various radar types, and the analysis of the display of the radar dataBeam Steering Systems• Hardware for combining transmitter outputs for various configurations including SA and DBS operation,
interferometry, and beam forming and steering.Antennas• Antenna design and manufacture for systems for the MF through UHF bands.
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Software Projects Smart Radar• Analysis of traditional set and forget parameters such as dwell time, in the first instance to determine whether
the dwell time can be reduced, but ultimately for the radar to determine its own optimum experiment parameters based on current conditions. This analysis includes a re‐visiting of techniques such as pulse coding and of wind determination methods using the spaced antenna technique.
Lower Atmosphere Analysis Products• In addition to wind retrievals, work has been completed to various degrees on the following additional lower
atmosphere analysis products:• Real time rainfall drop‐size distribution retrievals• Convective boundary layer detection and monitoring• Tropopause detection and monitoring• Turbulence detection and monitoring• Jet and sea breeze detection and monitoringWRF• Investigating small scale modelling capabilities using WRF, including ingestion of wind profiler data: based on
customer requests to better understand their local environments.Radar Imaging Software• Investigating the optimal approach for integrating radar imaging techniques into the ATRAD DAA software
suite.
atrad.com.au
Hardware Projects
Multi‐static Meteor Radar NetworksATRAD is currently operating its own multi‐static meteor network in Australia and supportinga remote meteor receiver trial in Germany. Other systems have been provided in China andSouth America. This development allows derivation of the two‐dimensional wind field over arelatively large spatial area and may offer better estimates of momentum fluxes usingmeteor radar.Australian Wind Profiler NetworkATRAD is the sole supplier and supporter of the first Australian Wind Profiler Network. WhileAustralia has had multiple research and operational profilers in the past, the addition of 9Radars for the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology results in profiler coveragesufficiently dense as to create a network. The network can be seen in the next figure, colourcoded to instrument type and ownership.
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Motivation• Maintain the Australian upper air network whilst moving to automated operation at some BoM observing sites
• Replace radiosondes at some locations• Aim for the amortised cost of the profiler network to be 25% of the cost of operating the radiosondes over a period of 10 years
• Of course, it turns out to be a lot cheaper per wind profile than that (2 radiosonde profiles versus 48 profiler profiles per day)
Australian Wind Profiler Network
atrad.com.au
Australian Wind Profiler NetworkDesign Goals• Robust, and capable of operating in remote and harsh environments
• Very low maintenance• Modular and scalable• System operation not susceptible to single point failures• Commonality of hardware and software across both Stratospheric Tropospheric and Boundary Layer Tropospheric systems
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EUMETNET E‐PROFILE
(The UK South Uist Wind Profiler is the same build standard as the Australian Wind Profiler Network)
http://eumetnet.eu/activities/observations‐programme/current‐activities/e‐profile/radar‐wind‐profilers/
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EUMETNET
http://eumetnet.eu/activities/observations-programme/current-activities/e-profile/radar-wind-profilers/
Legacy profiler data only currently assimilated from 300‐m to 2‐km
atrad.com.au
• Radars operate at 55 MHz• STP
– 144 3‐element Yagi antennas– 50 x 50m plus boundary– Beamwidth 7°– 5 beams @ 15° off‐zenith– 80 kW peak power – 10% duty cycle– Doppler Beam Swinging– 30‐min QC’d BUFR output– Winds from 500‐m @ 250‐m range resolution
• BLP– 27 3‐elelment Yagi antennas– 16 x 16m plus boundary– 12 kW peak power– 10% duty cycle– Full Correlation Analysis– 30‐min QC’d BUFR output– Winds from 300‐m at 100‐m range resolution
Tennant Creek STP (top), Mildura BLP (bottom)
Basic Characteristics
atrad.com.au
• Basic PA module is a 4 kW block (shown near right)
• Combined into 6 PA blocks (shown far right)
• Typical duty cycle– 10% Gaussian Monopulse– 15% Square/Coded Pulse
• First installed in an operating radar in 2006
• Several hundred PA modules currently in service
• 0.5% failure rate in that time• 30‐65 MHz range operating at present• Operation of the PA module possible
over a wider range
TransmitterTransmitter with 12 4 kW PAs with combiner and power supply (left). Specified as a 40 kW, but actually delivers 48 kW
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• Based on a Virtex‐4 FPGA• 3‐channel receiver block, up
to 6 per chassis• 16‐bit operation• 1 channel used in STP• 3 channels used in BLP• Installed in radars operating
from 2 to 449 MHz
• Several tens in service
GPS time and frequency lock available, but not used in BLP and STP radars
Transceiver (digital receiver exciter)
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• Peak power 12 kW• Three receiver channels• Antenna footprint 15.8 x 15.8 m @ 55 MHz• 300‐m to 8‐km
Boundary Layer Profiler
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Mildura and Mackay BLPs
The Mackay BLP continued operating as Severe Tropical Cyclone Debbie passed over it until the power to the area was lost. This was a Category 4 system. The radar did not require any repairs.
atrad.com.au
Shenzhen STP
Category 5-equivalent super typhoonMangkhut September 2018
(No guying on this radar)
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• Peak power 80 (96) kW
• Three receiver channels (only one used)
• Antenna footprint 50 x 50 m
• 500‐m to 20‐kmPulse coding capable, but not currently used
Stratospheric Tropospheric Profiler
atrad.com.au
Rear view Front view
*Consists of 24 4 kW PAs, so actually 96 kW delivered
STP Hardware – 80 kW*
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• STPs validated against a total of 398 sonde launches• BLPs validated against a total of 290 launches
STP (left) in low mode. 250‐m range gates, quality results from 500‐m
BLP (left) in low mode. 100‐m range gates, results from 200‐m; quality results from 300‐m
Example height coverage results
Local Validation
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Global NWP Model Acceptance – 1 May 2017
Courtesy of Maxime HervoMeteoSwiss
EUCOS Meteo‐France UKMO ECMWF
Ceduna
Mildura
Cairns
Coffs Harbour
Mackay
East Sale
Canberra
Launceston
Sydney
Tennant Creek
Halls Creek
Carnarvon
Longreach
BLs
STs
Legacy
Acceptance criteria different for each agency.
“Quality of the profilers increased from last year, what did you change?”
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ACCESS FSO
Wind ProfilerTracked balloonRadiosonde
Courtesy of Chris TingwellBoM
Energy‐norm forecast‐error measure restricted to the Australian region
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ACCESS FSO
Location Type Install Year
Carnarvon ST 2012
Halls Creek ST 2015
Tennant Creek ST 2012
Ceduna BL 2011
Mildura BL 2012
Sydney BL 1999
Canberra BL 2005
East Sale BL 2009
Cairns BL 2013
Coffs Harbour BL 2013
Launceston BL 2004
Wind ProfilerTracked balloonRadiosonde
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ACCESS FSO
Location Type Install Year
Carnarvon ST 2012
Halls Creek ST 2015
Tennant Creek ST 2012
Ceduna BL 2011
Mildura BL 2012
Sydney BL 1999
Canberra BL 2005
East Sale BL 2009
Cairns BL 2013
Coffs Harbour BL 2013
Launceston BL 2004
***
Wind ProfilerTracked balloonRadiosonde
Superior height coverage contributing more observationsPrevailing weather pattern is from west to east
atrad.com.au
ACCESS FSO
Location Type Install Year
Carnarvon ST 2012
Halls Creek ST 2015
Tennant Creek ST 2012
Ceduna BL 2011
Mildura BL 2012
Sydney BL 1999
Canberra BL 2005
East Sale BL 2009
Cairns BL 2013
Coffs Harbour BL 2013
Launceston BL 2004
Legacy systems only assimilated to 2 km
***
*
Wind ProfilerTracked balloonRadiosonde
Bronwyn K Dolman, Iain M Reid, and Chris Tingwell (2018), Stratospheric Tropospheric Wind Profiling Radars in the Australian Network, Earth, Planets, Space, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623‐018‐0944‐z
atrad.com.au
Research Applications• Tropopause/convective boundary layer detection
Output to user Numerical Weather Prediction
Forecasting
Output to user Numerical Weather Prediction
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Tennant Creek 80 kW STP high mode Tropopause
CBL
atrad.com.au
Research Applications• Tropopause/convective boundary layer detection
Output to user Numerical Weather Prediction
Forecasting
Output to user Numerical Weather Prediction
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Tennant Creek 80 kW STP high mode
atrad.com.au
Research Applications• Turbulence monitoring – preliminary investigations
Buckland Park ST turbulent velocity 08/03/2011
0
1
Sample
atrad.com.au
Other Hardware ProjectsUHF Wind Profiler• Development of a UHF wind profiling radar: augmenting our VHF wind profiler
range with a UHF profiler, opens additional overseas markets where VHF frequencies are not accepted for wind profiling, and higher frequencies mean a smaller antenna aperture and makes portable wind profiling realistic. The UHF system can also be used to complement VHF systems by sampling within the lowest 300‐m portion of the atmosphere
atrad.com.au
Other Hardware Projects
Comparison of a 12 kW 55 MHz Spaced Antenna BLP (top) and a 600‐W UHF Spaced Antenna BLP (bottom)
New UHF / L‐band antenna design
UHF Wind ProfilerThis project also includes investigation of:• New antenna designs and materials, and clutter screening• Spaced antenna and Doppler wind measurement techniques at this frequency
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Other Hardware Projects
Remote GPS locked Receiving stations• ATRAD has recently introduced a complete self‐contained GPS locked remote receiving system
for use with ionospheric, meteor, partial reflection, and other radar systems, or remote transmitters.
The Remote Receiving system with keyboard and screen stowed (above left), and (above right), with the keyboard and screen deployed. This figure shows the 6‐channel transceiver, with Linux‐PC, bandpass filter set and UPS
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Other Hardware ProjectsPolarSonde• A joint ATRAD, University of Adelaide and South Australian State Government funded project to develop a balloon borne cloud state detector
Holographic Microscope• A project to detect ice particles, extended to look at pollen particles
X band Radar• Investigation of X‐band radar for precipitation studiesIonosondes• Commercialisation of DST Group Ionospheric Sounder Technology
atrad.com.au
Conclusion 1ATRAD• Australian R&D company and radar manufacturer• In business since 1995• Wide range of radar products in addition to wind profiling radars
• Research Active
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Conclusion 2The Other Australian Radar Network• Australian wind profiler network now fully operational with 18 instruments (9 new, 5 legacy, 4 private/research)– Used for local forecasting, global NWP and research applications– Work on measuring the impact of profiler networks on NWP is of global interest
• Current focus on optimising both operational parameters and research applications, such as real‐time rainfall retrievals
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