AP Filtering

AP is perplexing for radar analysis. The beam can super-refract (over-arc towards the ground) in inversion situations or sub-refract (under-arc towards the key) in super-adiabatic conditions, giving:
  • fictitious echoes
  • fictitious cells
  • incorrect values for features like hail or echo tops
Attempts are being made to nowcast the beam height and identify AP in real time, but the results have been mixed. How this is being done is beyond the scope of this course.
 
Basic URP reflectivity products have no AP suppression. Doppler reflectivities do; echoes with zero radial velocity are filtered out. This remains an imperfect solution.