Identification, characterization and removal of anomalous propagation and ground clutter echoes using polarimetric Doppler weather radar products

This paper aims at developing an algorithm that uses polarimetric weather radar variables and its spatial variations to characterize and remove ground clutter (GC) and anomalous propagation (AP) echoes. A fuzzy logic based approach has been followed, which uses the standard deviation of differential phase (SD phi(DP)), vertical gradient of reflectivity (VGZ), dual pol texture ratio (DPTR) and correlation coefficient (rho(hv)) to discriminate precipitation echoes and non-precipitating echoes. The algorithm is tested for data of different independent events. The meteorological conditions leading to AP are also discussed. The accuracy obtained from the new algorithm is found to be better than the filtering techniques used so far.