Signal Processing

Signal processing is a specialized task that is computer-intensive. It is also somewhat different from radar to radar because of their different characteristics. In general, it involves:

  1. a digitization step, where the electric signals are converted into numbers, and
  2. a processing step, where raw parameters like reflectivity, Doppler velocity, and polarization parameters (ZDR, ρHV, φDP), if available, are computed, and "signal" (valid echoes) are separated from "noise" or clutter (unwanted echoes).
Typically, signal processing involves the removal of both ground clutter and false echoes produced by AP. The goal is to produce clean data, not necessarily artifact-free data. If the basic data are corrupted by the ground clutter/AP then all products built from those basic products will be corrupted as well.