Initial N-Pol Operations at the CHILL

The transmitter and electrical power distribution sea containers from NASA's N-Pol transportable research weather radar system were unloaded at the CSU-CHILL site on 17 October 2008. N-Pol is currently undergoing a series of technical evaluations and upgrades. In the course of these activities, it was desired to test the operation of N-Pol's electronics in isolation from the standard N-Pol antenna.

Waveguide Switch

To allow both radars to attach to the CHILL antenna, the existing CSU-CHILL waveguide system was modified to allow the antenna to be connected either the CHILL or N-Pol radars. The details can be seen in the following photograph taken from the roof of the N-Pol transmitter container.

The turnstile switches make it easy to select which radar system is driving the antenna.

Initial Data from N-Pol

During test operations on the afternoon of 4 November 2008, a volume scan of an area of virga was first done by the CSU-CHILL radar; the same volume scan was then repeated using N-Pol. Two example PPi images are shown below. In each case, the left panel is co-polar horizontal reflectivity (dBZ), and the right is differential reflectivity (dB): Additional episodes of "back-to-back" data collection by CHILL and N-Pol will be conducted through the end of 2008.