RV Investigator Voyage IN2015_V01 BASTA cloud radar (DRAFT)

This record describes data from the BASTA cloud radar, collected on the Marine National Facility RV Investigator voyage IN2015_V01. This voyage departed Hobart on the 21st March and returned to Hobart on the 29th of March, 2015.

The BASTA cloud radar is a vertically-pointing 95 GHz FM-CW (Frequency Modulation - Continuous Wave) radar. It measures vertical profiles of radar reflectivity (approximately proportional to the cloud particle diameter to the 4th power), and Doppler velocity (sum of vertical wind speed and terminal fall velocity of cloud particles when pointing vertically) at 1.5s temporal resolution, and four different vertical resolutions (12.5, 25, 100 and 200m) up to 12 km height. Currently the instrument is not mounted on a stabilized platform but will be in a near future.

This cloud radar is owned by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. It was developed by the Laboratoire ATmosphere, Milieux et Observations Spatiales (LATMOS) in France. It is serial number 2.

Calibration of the cloud radar was performed in 2014 using fixed targets of known reflectivity, and reflectivity in light rain.