Magurele (RADO)

The activities envisaged to be done during FRM4RADAR project will use the premises of the Romanian Atmospheric 3D research Observatory (RADO) in National Institute of Research and Development for Optoelectronics (INOE2000).

RADO is located at Magurele, near Bucharest (26.029E, 44.048N, 93m above sea level) (see Figure 1). The RPG 94 GHz radar will be initially deployed at RADO. Other remote sensing instruments currently deployed at RADO are:

Micro-Rain-Radar (MRR Metek, see Figure 2) is a meteorological radar operating at a frequency of 24 GHz. The high resolution in time and height enables the MRR to monitor the genesis of frozen hydrometeors, the melting zone (i.e., bright band) and the formation of rain drops. The instrument measures profiles of Doppler spectra and derives drop size distributions, rain rates, liquid water contents, radar reflectivity factors, Doppler velocities, path integrated attenuation. Typical applications include the unattended long-term measurement of rain, real time calibration of weather radar and monitoring of melting zone.

 

OTT Parsivel (see Figure 3) is a 650 nm laser-based optical disdrometer is used for simultaneous measurement of PARticle SIze and VELocity of all liquid and solid precipitation. The instrument offers a full picture of the precipitation event in all-weather phenomena and provides accurate reporting of precipitation types and intensities without degradation of performance in severe environments. The size range of measurable liquid precipitation particles is from 0.2–5 mm, for solid precipitation particles from 0.2–25 mm. In the process, precipitation particles can have a velocity of from 0.2–20 m s-1. The precipitation particles are classified into 8 different precipitation types (drizzle, mixed drizzle/rain, rain, mixed rain/snow, snow, snow grains, freezing rain and hail).

 

RPG HATPRO-G2 microwave radiometer (see Figure 4) is a stand-alone system, automated and functional under nearly all environmental conditions. This humidity and temperature profilers use radiation from two bands: 22–31 GHz (7 channel filter bank humidity profiler and LWP radiometer) and 51–58 GHz (7 channel filter bank temperature profiler).  The temperature vertical resolution is 50 m in the boundary layer (0–1,200 m), 200 m up to 5,000 m altitude, and 400 m up tol 10,000 m altitude. Tropospheric humidity profiles have a resolution of 200 m in the first 2 km altitude and 400 m of altitude between 2–5 km.

 

In the future (i.e., spring 2019), RADO is expected to extend its facilities by the setup of a new 20,000 sqm observation site, 2 km west from the current one (see Figure 1). This new site (Magurele Atmosphere and Radiation Site – MARS) will host active and passive remote sensing and in situ instrumentation for observation of aerosols, clouds and trace gases. A major investment at MARS is the implementation of a high sensitivity pulsed 35 GHz cloud radar system MIRA. A new radiometer, a wind lidar, and a continuous operation multiwavelength depolarization lidar will also be installed at the new site. The costs associated to the development of MARS are covered by national infrastructure funds.