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Doppler cloud radars are amazing tools to characterize cloud and fog properties and to improve their representation in models. However, commercially available cloud radars (35 and 95 GHz) are still very expensive, which hinders their widespread deployment. This study presents the development of a lower-cost semioperational 95-GHz Doppler cloud radar called the Bistatic Radar System for Atmospheric Studies (BASTA). To drastically reduce the cost of the instrument, a different approach is used compared to traditional pulsed radars: instead of transmitting a large amount of energy for a very short time period (as a pulse), a lower amount of energy is transmitted continuously. By using a specific signal processing technique, the radar can challenge expensive radars and provide high-quality measurements of cloud and fog. The latest version of the instrument has a sensitivity of about −50 dB Z at 1 km for 3-s integration and a vertical resolution of 25 m. The BASTA radar currently uses four successive modes for specific applications: the 12.5-m vertical resolution mode is dedicated to fog and low clouds, the 25-m mode is for liquid and ice midtropospheric clouds, and the 100- and 200-m modes are ideal for optically thin high-level ice clouds. The advantages of such a radar for calibration procedures and field operations are also highlighted. The radar comes with a set of products dedicated to cloud and fog studies. For instance, cloud mask, corrected Doppler velocity, and multimode products combining the high-sensitivity mode and high-resolution modes are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refractivity measurements in the boundary layer by precipitation radar could be useful for convection prediction. Until now such measurements have only been performed by coherent radars, but European weather radars are mostly equipped with noncoherent magnetron transmitters for which the phase and frequency may vary. In this paper, the authors give an analytical expression of the refractivity measurement by a noncoherent drifting-frequency magnetron radar and validate it by comparing with in situ measurements. The main conclusion is that, provided the necessary corrections are applied, the measurement can be successfully performed with a noncoherent radar. The correction factor mainly depends on the local-oscillator frequency variation, which is known perfectly. A second-order error, proportional to the transmitted frequency variation, can be neglected as long as this change remains small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]