Weather radar calibration service

Radar calibration is difficult. We are specialists in generating highly accurate polarimetric virtual radar targets from S- to X-band, for any Doppler velocity, at any radar range. Generated targets serve as a reference for the calibration of your radar’s polarimetric and Doppler moments.

Polarimetric antenna pattern of a weather radar
Eye diagram of more than 10000 radar pulses

In addition to generating polarimetric calibration targets, transmit pulse parameters like transmit power, pulse shape, polarization state and pulse frequency are being determined. By measuring also the antenna pattern with two different techniques (on transmission and on reception), a complete end-to-end performance assessment of your radar system becomes feasible.

Time series of the radar pulse frequency (relative to carrier frequency)
Reflectivity time series from obtained from a virtually generated 60.4 dBZ target .

Radar calibration with Palindrome’s target simulator is a quick task. The set-up of the instrument takes 30 minutes, which is followed by the automatic alignment process. During the calibration process, the radar optimally conducts window scans in the direction of the target simulator, which generates a series of different targets with pre-defined properties (range, absolute and differential reflectivity, velocity).

The calibration process is concluded with a thorough analysis of the gathered radar and target simulator data which results in a comprehensive radar assessment report.

Radar response to a continuously increased target reflectivity at a range of 30 km. Radar reflectivity bias was 2.25 dB.
Time series of the radar measured differential reflectivity of virtual target with 0 dB Zdr.