An improved weather radar signal processing algorithm implemented on Mitsubishi RC-34A radar

A precise estimation of Cb (cumulonimbus) cloud cells reflectivity is essential for effectiveness of the rocket method seeding in hail suppression activities. An improved weather radar signal processing algorithm implemented on the Mitsubishi RC-34A radar, described in this paper, is a contribution to this efficiency. The algorithm involves radar finite bandwidth receiver calibration, time, angle and range averaging of radar signals and transforms radar signal amplitude at the receiver output into corrected equivalent reflectivity factor. The equivalent number of independent samples as a measure of uncertainty related to the variance of the radar signal processed by the finite bandwidth radar receiver is also given in the paper.