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S-band Radar A new S-band vertical profiler with a coupler option for extending the dynamic range of the radar's receiver has been developed by the NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory and successfully field tested during CALJET. The 30 dB of added dynamic range provided by the coupler allows the profiler to record radar reflectivity measurements in moderate-to-heavy precipitation that otherwise would not have been possible with this system because of receiver saturation. The radar hardware, signal processor, and operating software are based on existing S-band and UHF profiler technology developed at the NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory. Results from a side-by-side comparison with the NOAA K-band radar were used to determine the calibration and sensitivity of the S-band profiler. In a typical cloud profiling mode of operation, the sensitivity is -14 dBZ at 10 km or -25 dBZ at 3 km. During CALJET, the profiler was deployed at Cazadero, California, near the crest of the coastal mountains in a region climatologically prone to flooding. The profiler was part of an integrated observing system designed for measuring physical processes associated with orographic precipitation enhancement. The CALJET S-band dataset is also being applied to the problem of quantitative precipitation estimation using the WSR-88D (NEXRAD) network.
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