EVALUATION OF DOPPLER WEATHER RADAR DERIVED VVP WIND PROFILES

Abstract

Doppler weather radar (DWR) is a critical tool in meteorology, providing invaluable insights into atmospheric conditions and detecting precipitation, storm intensity, and movement. The present study focuses on utilizing DWR radial velocity observations to retrieve local wind fields, which play a key role in transporting mass, momentum, and energy across the atmosphere and influencing meteorological processes. The study evaluates the quality of velocity volume processing (VVP) wind profiles and validates them against radiosonde observations and other reanalysis data. VVP is a well-known technique for wind field retrieval, however, it has not been rigorously evaluated over the region of interest, i.e., the southern Pensula, India. The study found that the high conditional number poses significant challenges in retrieving wind with desirable accuracy. Statistical analysis of the quality-controlled winds demonstrates a strong correlation of 0.86 for the U component and 0.77 for the V component between DWR-derived and different sources, with RMSE values of 3.16 m/s and 3.10 m/s, respectively. The study evaluates the reliability of DWR-derived wind profiles as a complementary data source for numerical weather prediction (NWP) applications. This research highlights the potential for enhancing weather forecasting accuracy, especially in areas with limited radiosonde coverage, by providing alternative wind profiles. ©2025 IEEE.