The authors present herein an analysis of a single-Doppler velocity retriev
al (SDVR) technique whereby the unobserved wind components are determined f
rom single-Doppler radar data. The analysis is designed to provide informat
ion about the behavior and/or sensitivity of the SDVR scheme as a function
of various internal and external parameters as well as about observational
errors and weights.
Results presented for retrieval of both the mean and local flow indicate th
at the SDVR breaks down if the reflectivity gradient vanishes or if a refle
ctivity isoline is locally perpendicular to the radar beam. In the absence
of reflectivity or radial velocity errors, the mean flow solution is indepe
ndent of the integration area, the radar location, the signal wavenumber, a
nd the weights. Given perfect radial wind information, error in the reflect
ivity field degrades the solution. Contrary to the error-free solution, the
solution with error depends on the integration area.
Error statistics indicate that radial wind information alone is not suffici
ent to retrieve the local wind. Reduced error norms reveal that an optimal
(i.e., reduced error norms) integration area exists that is dependent upon
the length of time between radar volume scans, suggesting that the velocity
field is not stationary (as was assumed) over these scans.