National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
MSRI-2 Airborne Phased Array Radar (APAR)
instrumentairborne instrumentIndustry: Aerospace
- Category
- Physical Infrastructure
- Affiliations
- NCAR
Description
APAR: an airborne C-band dual-polarization phased-array radar in development at NCAR, with four removable AESAs on the NSF/NCAR C-130 providing dual-Doppler, rapid-scan and digital-beamforming observations of storm kinematics and microphysics; replaces ELDORA. NSF suspended support in April 2025.
Official page
https://www.eol.ucar.edu/research-development/apar/msri-2-airborne-phased-array-radar-apar
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Contact
- Contact
- (no name)
Details
- Keywords
- active electronically scanned arrays, dual-doppler capability, digital beamforming, storm microphysics, eldora replacement, numerical weather model assimilation
- Location
- Boulder, Colorado
- Measurement band
- C-band (5.35–5.45 GHz)
- Instrument platform
- NSF/NCAR C-130 aircraft
- Associated entity
- Earth Observing Laboratory
- Deployment platform
- aircraft
- Specifications
- Each AESA is approximately 1.8 m x 1.8 m in size and is consists of ~2,400 transmitting/receiving antenna elements. | 11 dBZ at 10 km range