Assistant for Analyzing Tropical-Rain-Mapping Radar Data

A document is defined that describes an approach for a Tropical Rain Mapping Radar Data System (TDS). TDS is composed of software and hardware elements incorporating a two-frequency spaceborne radar system for measuring tropical precipitation. The TDS would be used primarily in generating data products for scientific investigations. The most novel part of the TDS would be expert-system software to aid in the selection of algorithms for converting raw radar-return data into such primary observables as rain rate, path-integrated rain rate, and surface backscatter. The expert-system approach would address the issue that selection of algorithms for processing the data requires a significant amount of preprocessing, non-intuitive reasoning, and heuristic application, making it infeasible, in many cases, to select the proper algorithm in real time. In the TDS, tentative selections would be made to enable conversions in real time. The expert system would remove straightforwardly convertible data from further consideration, and would examine ambiguous data, performing analysis in depth to determine which algorithms to select. Conversions performed by these algorithms, presumed to be correct, would be compared with the corresponding real-time conversions. Incorrect real-time conversions would be updated using the correct conversions.