Improvement of the fuzzy logic technique for identifying ground clutter and its verification

Ground clutter is an important factor affecting the radar data quality of the CINRAD. Based on the fuzzy logic algorithm, six efficient parameters from a variety of parameters used in radar quality control algorithms were selected for this study. To remove the bin whose value exceeds a certain threshold, it uses certain fuzzy approach to output a value that quantifies the possibility that each bin will be affected by clutter. In cases where AP echoes are embedded within real rainfall echoes, gaps in rainfall echo areas potentially created by the algorithm will be filled using the echo information above by the improved algorithm. Another aim of this study is to reduce the possibility of misidentification of small-scale strong convective echoes far away from the radar sites by changing each bin’s threshold in the algorithm for different radar distance ranges. The significance of identifying ground clutter has been tested by statistical methods through comparing between the accumulative mean echo intensities before and after the quality control as done by the radar at Tianjin.