Data quality of the Meteo-France C-band polarimetric radar

The French operational radar network is being upgraded and expanded from 2002 to 2006 by MeteoFrance in partnership with the French Ministry of the Environment. A detailed examination of the quality of the raw polarimetric variables is reported here. The analysis procedures determine the precision of the measurements and quantify errors resulting from miscalibration, near-radome interference, and noise effects. Correction methods to remove biases resulting from effective noise powers in the horizontal and vertical channels, radar miscalibration, and the system offset in differential propagation phase measurements are presented and evaluated. Filtering methods were also required in order to remove azimuthal dependencies discovered with fields of differential reflectivity and differential propagation phase. The developed data quality analysis procedures may be useful to the agencies that are in the process of upgrading their radar networks with dual-polarization capabilities.