Comparison of Theoretical Biases in Estimating Polarimetric Properties of Precipitation With Weather Radar Using Parabolic Reflector, or Planar and Cylindrical Arrays

Planar or cylindrical phased arrays are two candidate antennas for future polarimetric weather radar. These two candidate antennas have distinctly different attributes when used to make quantitative measurements of the polarimetric properties of precipitation. Of critical concern is meeting the required polarimetric performance for all directions of the electronically steered beam. The copolar and cross-polar radiation patterns and polarimetric parameter estimation performances of these two phased array antennas are studied and compared with that obtained using a dual-polarized parabolic reflector antenna. Results obtained from simulation show that the planar polarimetric phased array radar has unacceptable polarimetric parameter biases that require beam to beam correction, whereas biases obtained with the cylindrical polarimetric phased array radar are much lower and comparable to that obtained using the parabolic reflector antenna.