ATSC5340 Radar Meteorology

Objectives

This course is designed to provide a foundational understanding of radar meteorology, including the fundamentals of radar instrument design, scattering and radiative transfer theories at radar frequencies, Doppler principles, distributed targets of atmospheric scatterers, and the applications to radar remote sensing of clouds and precipitation.  Graduate students will build solid theoretical and empirical bases for understanding how radar instruments work and what radar signals tell us about, and how useful radar measurements are in atmospheric science.

Goals

The goal of this course is for the students to understand the physical principles of radar theories and applications of radar remote sensing in atmospheric science and to be able to interpret radar-derived data in atmospheric science research from the physics perspective, through course lectures and practical exercises.

Student Learning Outcomes: The students will be able to

• Understand the solid basis of the radar equation along with basic scattering, absorption, and radiative transfer processes relevant to radar and its application to radar remote sensing of cloud and precipitation.

• Understand basic engineering techniques for radar instruments and design for various observational platforms.

• Demonstrate the ability to communicate the topics of radar meteorology clearly and concisely from the physics perspective.

• Demonstrate the ability to utilize and interpret radar data and radar-derived retrievals and to discuss the capabilities and limitations of these datasets in atmospheric science.

Topics

The topics covered in this course include (subject to change):

• Overview of radar meteorology

• Basics and scattering theories

• Radar instruments and signal processing

• Doppler radar

• Polarimetric radar

• Next-generation radar techniques

Anonymous student feedback (2025 Spring)

• Masa may be one of my favorite professors in the department. He is always so prepared for class, and despite not taking an official radar class himself does a great shot communicating everything. I thoroughly enjoyed this class, the structure of the class, and the coursework associated with the class.

• I like the "Today's Radar" section—it is highly relevant to practical applications. The instructor explained complex radar principles clearly using illustrative diagrams, which made the content easy to understand. I believe this course will be very helpful for my research career. Thank you!

• The lecture notes were crucial to my understanding of the lecture materials. I also really enjoyed the practical exercises and incorporating programming into the class. The hangar field trip was also really great!

• The visuals, especially in the DFT notes, really helped a lot to understand the concepts. I also like the idea of doing the field trip earlier in the semester and then using the data from that for a practical exercise or etc.; I think that would be cool.

• I felt that the homeworks worked positively in my understanding of the material, so I wouldn't mind seeing more regular homework assignments in a future course

• Loved the field trip section in the radar applications! Would love to see even more of it.

• I really liked the notes style- made for easy and accessible reference outside of class.