A MULTIPLE-DOPPLER SYNTHESIS AND CONTINUITY ADJUSTMENT TECHNIQUE (MUSCAT) TO RECOVER WIND COMPONENTS FROM DOPPLER RADAR MEASUREMENTS

A new approach is presented to account for a simultaneous solution of the three wind components from at least a pair of Doppler radar observ ations, which could remove potential drawbacks of an iterative (nonsim ultaneous) solution of Cartesian dual-Doppler analysis techniques. The multiple-Doppler synthesis and continuity adjustment technique (MUSCA T) is derived from the extended overdetermined dual-Doppler (EODD) var iational formalism that contains the basis for a simultaneous (noniter ative) solution of a dual-or multiple-equation system and a mass conti nuity equation. Necessary accommodations are discussed, including the solutions for a plane-to-plane synthesis (as in EODD) instead of a ful ly three-dimensional and computationally intensive analysis, owing lo the three-dimensional character of the continuity equation. The evalua tion of MUSCAT is carried out by first considering real data and then performing numerical tests based on simulated radar observations. The comparative study with EODD applications shows that MUSCAT provides a more regular description of the airflow and that EODD may still contai n residual errors that make the retrieved wind components inconsistent . Results from the numerical tests definitely reveal the real improvem ents of MUSCAT in synthesizing Doppler radar data.