Bayesian echo classification for Australian single-polarization weather radar with application to assimilation of radial velocity observations

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s operational weather radar network comprises a heterogeneous radar collection covering diverse geography and climate. A naïve Bayes classifier has been developed to identify a range of common echo types observed with these radars. The success of the classifier has been evaluated against its training dataset and by routine monitoring. The training data indicate that more than 90% of precipitation may be identified correctly. The echo types most difficult to distinguish from rainfall are smoke, chaff, and anomalous propagation ground and sea clutter. Their impact depends on their climatological frequency. Small quantities of frequently misclassified persistent echo (like permanent ground clutter or insects) can also cause quality control issues. The Bayes classifier is demonstrated to perform better than a simple threshold method, particularly for reducing misclassification of clutter as precipitation. However, the result depends on finding a balance between excluding precipitation and including erroneous echo. Unlike many single-polarization classifiers that are only intended to extract precipitation echo, the Bayes classifier also discriminates types of nonprecipitation echo. Therefore, the classifier provides the means to utilize clear air echo for applications like data assimilation, and the class information will permit separate data handling of different echo types