Interactive comment on Retrieval of three-dimensional wind fields from Doppler radar data using an efficient two-step approach by C
This manuscript is concerned with the description and testing of a variational dualDoppler radar wind retrieval algorithm. The constraints imposed in the analysis procedure are: observational constraints, which incorporate data from two or more Doppler radars (and possibly other data sources, e.g., dropsonde or sounding observations), a mass conservation constraint (sometimes referred to in the literature as a mass continuity constraint), and spatial smoothness constraints. The procedure is general enough to incorporate data from two or more stationary Doppler radars or from a so-called "pseudo-dual-Doppler radar", that is, data from an airborne-radar that, when appropriately processed, are equivalent to data gathered from two stationary Doppler radars. The observational and mass conservation constraints are standard in dual-Doppler analysis procedures. The use of smoothness constraints is standard in variational (e.g., 3DVAR) analysis techniques. The new aspect of this study is a data gridding/reduction step designed to minimize loss of information and to generate estimates of the variances of the reduced velocities. Any improvements made in these directions would be of interest to radar and mesoscale meteorologists as it could potentially improve dualDoppler analyses of a variety of convective and non-convective weather phenomena. The new retrieval is tested with pseudo-dual-Doppler radar data from a tropical depression. Unfortunately, the results from these tests are inconclusive. A comparison of the retrieved horizontal wind vectors with the horizontal wind vectors from an independent data source (dropsondes) does indicate a qualitatively good agreement (Fig. 8). But there is relatively little challenge in obtaining qualitatively reasonable horizontal wind components from dual-Doppler or pseudo-dual Doppler data, especially on the coarse analysis grid indicated on that figure. A more challenging problem and one of prime interest to mesoscale meteorologists is the analysis of the vertical wind component. Apparently it was not possible to evaluate the accuracy of the retrieved vertical wind component in this test case. In the future it would probably be better to consider a more stringent test of the algorithm, perhaps
Evaluation of meteorological airborne Doppler radar
This paper will discuss the capabilities of airborne Doppler radar for atmospheric sciences research. The evaluation is based on airborne and ground based Doppler radar observations of convective storms. The capability of airborne Doppler radar to measure horizontal and vertical air motions is evaluated. Airborne Doppler radar is shown to be a viable tool for atmospheric sciences research.
Morpho-biometric Relationship, Relative Condition Factor and Meat Yield of Distant Scallop Bractechlamys vexillum (Reeve, 1853) in Asid Gulf, Philippines
Understanding the relationships of morphometric and biometric characters of a species allows the prediction of one trait from the other and generate a measure of relative condition. These relationships were studied for the Distant scallop Bratechlamys vexillum (Reeve, 1853) in Asid Gulf. Representative samples collected during the dry season (May 2018, n = 99) and wet season (September 2018, n = 100) were used to analyse these relationships through models of simple linear and power regression analyses, revealing allometric growth patterns. For both periods, it was revealed that shell width (SW) is a slightly better predictor than the height (SH) for total weight (TW) (R2 = 0.90 and 0.92) and the adductor muscle weight (AW) (R2 = 0.78 and 0.80). The strong functional relationship was also observed between TW and AW (R2 = 0.80 and 0.81). The relative condition factors (Kn) were high in both seasons. High meat yields were also observed in May (12.77 %) and September (14.26 %). The significant difference in meat yields (P < 0.05) can be a result of the seasonal difference manifested by the dynamics of energy partitioning during gametogenesis and spawning. These biological metrics are vital inputs in analysing mariculture prospects for the resource and a contribution to the scarce information on the biology of the species.