The turbulent eddy profiler: A digital beam-forming system for clear-air turbulence measurement

This thesis describes the Turbulent Eddy Profiler (TEP), a volume-imaging, UHF radar wind profiler designed for clear-air measurements in the atmospheric boundary layer on scales comparable to grid cell sizes of Large Eddy Simulation models. TEP employs a large array of antennas--each feeding an independent receiver--to simultaneously generate multiple beams within a 25$\sp\circ$ conical volume illuminated by the transmitter. Range gating provides 30 m spatial resolution in the vertical dimension. Each volume image is updated every 2-10 s, and long data sets can be gathered to study the evolution of turbulent structure over several hours. This thesis provides a summary of the design and operational principles of the Turbulent Eddy Profiler, including an analysis of the calibration and data processing. The TEP engineering tests are described, along with an analysis of precipitation data. Finally, the atmospheric experiments in North Carolina are presented, along with analysis of clear-air data