CPPAR

Cylindrical Polarimetric Phased Array Radar
The CPPAR is a cylindrical polarimetric phased array that is capable of maintaining broadside polarimetric purity at all azimuthal pointing angles. The CPPAR was built completely by OU students, faculty, and staff.

System Overview

The CPPAR's primary purpose is to prove the concept of a cylindrical polarimetric phased array and demonstrate its inherent polarimetric advantages. Since these advantages become most apparent in the context of the polarimetric weather radar mission, the ability to make meaningful weather measurements with the system is desired. With limited resources, a novel system has been designed which both can demonstrate the CPPAR concept and serve as a platform for general phased array research in the future.

System characteristics

  • 80 W peak power per column using solid state electronics
    • Number of Elements: 1824
    • Peak Radiated Power: 1.5 kW
  • Wavelength: 10.34 cm
    • Operation frequency is 2900 MHz (S-band)
    • Wavelength: 10.34 cm
    • Pulse Length: 1-100 µsec
    • Maximum Duty Cycle: 15%
    • Maximum Pulse Bandwidth: 20 MHz
  • Antenna
    • 3-dB Beamwidth: 4.5°-6.5°
    • Polarization: Dual-Linear
    • Cross-Polarization Level: < -30 dB
    • Elevation Scan Range: 0-20° (2700-3100 MHz)
  • Receiver
    • Minimum Gate Spacing: 7.5 m
    • Maximum Data Throughput: 200 Mbps per Channel
  • Sensitivity
    • Without Pulse Compression: 20 dBZ at 10 km
    • With Pulse Compression: 20 dBZ at 50 km

Open for Collaboration

The University of Oklahoma encourages academic, government, and private sector collaborations focused on advancing weather radar technology and science. CPPAR is open for business as a platform to foster and support such relationships. Joint projects are also welcome in signal processing, radar system design, phased array radar, profiling radar, QPE, radar polarimetry, retrieval algorithms, and severe storm observations. Please contact the ARRC Director for specific inquires.

Publication of CPPAR Data

The use of CPPAR data in formal publications and research projects is strongly encouraged. For publications, please use the following acknowledgement: "CPPAR is maintained and operated by the Advanced Radar Research Center (ARRC) of the University of Oklahoma."

Data Access

The University of Oklahoma is committed to providing access to data collected during past field campaigns. To request data from this system, please contact data@arrc.ou.edu. In addition, you can find example datasets available to be downloaded at the Data page.