CASPER West Evaporation Duct Height Inversion Using LATPROP-Radar

Refractive atmospheric conditions at low altitudes can have a significant impact on electromagnetic signal propagation in many maritime environments. For air-sea interaction research, it is crucial to characterize atmosphere boundary layer properties, specifically in this work, by utilizing radar clutter returns caused by electromagnetic ducting phenomena. Refractivity from clutter (RFC) is a technique that refers to the estimation of an atmospheric refractivity profile from radar clutter returns. The RFC algorithm works by obtaining the environment in which the simulated clutter pattern matches the measured radar data. The environments are simulated by a parabolic wave equation (PWE) algorithm and the data was collected using a commercial Koden MDS-63R marine radar architecture that was converted to enable increased sensitivity to radar clutter returns. The radar was deployed in Southern California at Pt. Mugu from September-October 2017 as part of the Coupled Air-Sea Processes and EM Ducting Research (CASPER) West Campaign.