P3C.8 Radar Calibration Using a Trihedral Corner Reflector

Many useful methods for calibrating weather radars in the field and laboratory are summarized by Joe and Smith (2001) from presentations at the 2001 AMS Radar Calibration Workshop in Albuquerque, NM . Additional methods are described by Atlas (2002). Common external (full-system) calibration methods range from using metal spheres suspended from balloons to the use of solar radio emissions. Although the task is seemingly straightforward, it is challenging to devise methods that are accurate but not so difficult to conduct that they are impractical. The method used by NOAA’s Environmental Technology Laboratory (ETL) for calibrating its scanning X-band and Ka-band radars is described in this article. The radars are described by Martner et al. (2001, 2002).