At Gadanki (13.50N, 79.20E), India, an MST radar working at 53 MHz with an average energy aperture product of 7x108Wm2 was developed. Development of radar was achieved in two stages. In the first stage, a partial system comprising one quarter (16x 16) of the Yagi antenna array and 16 transmitter driver units was commissioned in ST mode, giving an average energy aperture product of 4.8x 106Wm2. The overview of the radar scheme, including off-line data processing, and some high-resolution measurements of vector wind produced in ST mode operation. The Indian MST Radar serves the purpose of providing data regarding atmospheric movements. To obtain information on the wind parameters, the signals collected from the radar are to be analyzed, which mainly involves the estimation of the power spectrum. Parametric and nonparametric methods for spectrum estimation were applied on the complex radar data and were found to fail in accurately estimating the Doppler spectrum, particularly in the height range of 14–17 km. This made way for the introduction of a new category of spectrum estimation methods called semiparametric.It aims that the spectral analysis of MST radar signals using a sparse spectrum estimation algorithm termed as Semiparametric/sparse Iterative Covariance-based Estimation (SPICE). This algorithm was found to successfully estimate the spectrum for simulated data even in the scenario of low SNR. For the MST radar data the zonal U, meridional V, and wind velocity W,components have been estimated from the Doppler spectrum. For validation, the obtained wind speed has been compared with the Global Positioning System radiosonde data; along with the wind speed acquired using the previously attempted methods of spectrum estimation.
Volume 12 | Issue 6
Pages: 963-972
DOI: 10.5373/JARDCS/V12I6/S20201116