Elimination of Chaff Echoes in Reflectivity Composite from an Operational Weather Radar Network using Infrared Satellite Data

To discriminate and eliminate chaff echoes in radar measurements, a new removal algorithm in two-dimensional reflectivity composite at the height of 1.5 km has been developed by using the brightness temperature(TB) obtained from MTSAT-1R. This algorithm utilizes the fact that chaffs are not appeared in infrared satellite data of MTSAT-1R, but detected in radar measurements due to their significant backscattering in the given radar wavelength. The algorithm is evaluated for three different situations: chaff only, chaff mixed with convective storms, and chaff covered with clouds. The algorithm shows excellent performance for the cases of chaff only and chaff mixed with convective storms. However, the performance of the algorithm significantly depends on the presence of clouds. Thus, the statistical analysis of TB is performed in order to optimize the monthly threshold.