The Quality Control Method of Erroneous Radar Echo Data Generated by Hardware Fault

Radar hardware fault affects data quality directly. Erroneous data not only affect local forecaster analyzing weather, but also have serious influence on the running of national operation system. So far, study on radar data quality control mainly aims at non-meteorological echoes, such as ground clutter, sea clutter, electromagnetic interference and so on. There isn't enough effective quality control method for erroneous data generated by hardware fault. Through analysis on the integrity of base data, position information and characteristic of hardware fault echoes, the correlation between erroneous data and fault category, and effects of different fault on data and echoes are studied. A quality control method is provided.Erroneous data generated by radar hardware fault affect integrity of base data, position and intensity information of echoes. There is some difference among different type hardware fault or part of radar. Transmitter and receiver system fault mainly affect the intensity information. Servo system fault mainly affect position information and the integrity of date. Through checking base data integrity and echoes position information, fault data generated by servo system can be identified.The radar intensity information affect image feature such as shape, range and intensity. The error intensity information data generated by radar hardware fault can be controlled through fuzzy-logical principle, and identified through comparing parameters such as radar echoes area, mean absolute difference of intensity, the degree of intensity change, and image correlation coefficient with neighboring normal data. There is some difference between different parts of radar or different kinds of hardware fault. It is impossible to identify all erroneous data only by one method. In the actual work, it is necessary to combine status and alarm information, and apply multiple means to check radar data step by step. Only in this way, erroneous data generated by hardware fault can be effectively and comprehensively controlled.A test on erroneous data generated by hardware fault of Shijiazhuang radar site from 2004 to 2013 is carried out, and the identification ratio is above 90%. It is supplement for the existing quality control methods which mainly aim at non-meteorological echoes when radar operate normally. The proposed algorithm is mainly based on the intensity and position information, and the quality control method on velocity and spectral width error generated by hardware fault should be further studied.