Thunderstorm Recognition Algorithm Research Based on Simulated Airborne Weather Radar Reflectivity Volume Scan Data

At present, most airborne radars have no volume scan capability, so the echo information detected is limited and it can be difficult to detect the thunderstorms in front of the aircraft completely. First of all, this paper proposes an airborne weather radar that adopts volume scan mode and takes the X-band ground-based weather radar data as the simulation source to obtain the airborne radar reflectivity volume scan data according to a simulation model. Then, based on the Storm Cell Identification (SCI) algorithm, this paper researches and proposes a thunderstorm identification algorithm applying to this airborne radar by modifying some threshold parameters, which has improvements on identifying thunderstorm cells. Finally, an example of thunderstorm identification based on the simulated airborne weather radar reflectivity volume scan data is given, which shows that the algorithm can effectively identify the thunderstorm cells in the scanning sector in front of the radar and get their attributes. It is helpful for monitoring thunderstorm and meaningful for flight safety.