Compare Two Radars Using Gatemapper#

Map the reflectivity field of a single radar in Antenna coordinates to another radar in Antenna coordinates and compare the fields.

print(__doc__)

# Author: Max Grover (mgrover@anl.gov) and Bobby Jackson (rjackson@anl.gov)
# License: BSD 3 clause

import warnings

import cartopy.crs as ccrs
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

import pyart
from pyart.testing import get_test_data

warnings.filterwarnings("ignore")

Read in the Data

For this example, we use two XSAPR radars from our test data.

# read in the data from both XSAPR radars
xsapr_sw_file = get_test_data("swx_20120520_0641.nc")
xsapr_se_file = get_test_data("sex_20120520_0641.nc")
radar_sw = pyart.io.read_cfradial(xsapr_sw_file)
radar_se = pyart.io.read_cfradial(xsapr_se_file)

Filter and Configure the GateMapper

We are interested in mapping the southwestern radar to the southeastern radar. Before running our gatemapper, we add a filter for only positive reflectivity values. We also need to set a distance (meters) and time (seconds) between the source and destination gate allowed for an adequate match), using the distance_tolerance/time_tolerance variables.

gatefilter = pyart.filters.GateFilter(radar_sw)
gatefilter.exclude_below("reflectivity_horizontal", 20)
gmapper = pyart.map.GateMapper(
    radar_sw,
    radar_se,
    distance_tolerance=500.0,
    time_tolerance=60,
    gatefilter_src=gatefilter,
)
radar_sw_mapped_to_radar_se = gmapper.mapped_radar(["reflectivity_horizontal"])

Plot the Original Data

Let’s take a look at our original fields - notice the difference in reflectivity values!

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(16, 6))
ax = plt.subplot(121, projection=ccrs.PlateCarree())

# Plot the southwestern radar
disp1 = pyart.graph.RadarMapDisplay(radar_sw)
disp1.plot_ppi_map(
    "reflectivity_horizontal",
    sweep=1,
    ax=ax,
    vmin=-20,
    vmax=70,
    min_lat=36,
    max_lat=37,
    min_lon=-98,
    max_lon=-97,
    lat_lines=np.arange(36, 37.25, 0.25),
    lon_lines=np.arange(-98, -96.75, 0.25),
)

ax2 = plt.subplot(122, projection=ccrs.PlateCarree())
disp2 = pyart.graph.RadarMapDisplay(radar_se)
disp2.plot_ppi_map(
    "reflectivity_horizontal",
    sweep=1,
    ax=ax2,
    vmin=-20,
    vmax=70,
    min_lat=36,
    max_lat=37,
    min_lon=-98,
    max_lon=-97,
    lat_lines=np.arange(36, 37.25, 0.25),
    lon_lines=np.arange(-98, -96.75, 0.25),
)
xsapr-sg 1.5 Deg. 2011-05-20T06:42:26Z  Equivalent reflectivity factor, xsapr-sg 1.5 Deg. 2011-05-20T06:41:37Z  Equivalent reflectivity factor

Now, we can compare our original field from the southwestern radar, to the new remapped field - there are similarities…

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(16, 6))
ax = plt.subplot(121, projection=ccrs.PlateCarree())

# Plot the southeastern radar
disp1 = pyart.graph.RadarMapDisplay(radar_se)
disp1.plot_ppi_map(
    "reflectivity_horizontal",
    sweep=1,
    ax=ax,
    vmin=-20,
    vmax=70,
    min_lat=36,
    max_lat=37,
    min_lon=-98,
    max_lon=-97,
    lat_lines=np.arange(36, 37.25, 0.25),
    lon_lines=np.arange(-98, -96.75, 0.25),
)

# Plot the southwestern radar mapped to the southeastern radar
ax2 = plt.subplot(122, projection=ccrs.PlateCarree())
disp2 = pyart.graph.RadarMapDisplay(radar_sw_mapped_to_radar_se)
disp2.plot_ppi_map(
    "reflectivity_horizontal",
    sweep=1,
    ax=ax2,
    vmin=-20,
    vmax=70,
    min_lat=36,
    max_lat=37,
    min_lon=-98,
    max_lon=-97,
    lat_lines=np.arange(36, 37.25, 0.25),
    lon_lines=np.arange(-98, -96.75, 0.25),
)
xsapr-sg 1.5 Deg. 2011-05-20T06:41:37Z  Equivalent reflectivity factor, xsapr-sg 1.5 Deg. 2011-05-20T06:41:37Z  Equivalent reflectivity factor

Calculate and Plot the Difference

It can be difficult to “eyeball” the difference between these two fields. Fortunately, now that our radars match coordinates, we can plot a difference. Keep in mind there is a time difference of ~ 1 minute between these plots, leading to small difference due to the precipitation moving through the domain over the course of that minute.

# Extract the numpy arrays for our reflectivity fields
reflectivity_se_radar = radar_se.fields["reflectivity_horizontal"]["data"]
reflectivity_sw_radar = radar_sw_mapped_to_radar_se.fields["reflectivity_horizontal"][
    "data"
]

# Calculate the difference between the southeastern and southwestern radar
reflectivity_difference = reflectivity_se_radar - reflectivity_sw_radar

# Add a field like this to the radar_se radar object
radar_se.add_field_like(
    "reflectivity_horizontal",
    field_name="reflectivity_bias",
    data=reflectivity_difference,
)

# Setup our figure
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(8, 6))
ax = plt.subplot(111, projection=ccrs.PlateCarree())

# Plot the difference field
disp1 = pyart.graph.RadarMapDisplay(radar_se)
disp1.plot_ppi_map(
    "reflectivity_bias",
    cmap="pyart_balance",
    title="Reflectivity Difference \n XSAPR Southwest - XSPAR Southeast",
    sweep=1,
    ax=ax,
    vmin=-30,
    vmax=30,
    min_lat=36,
    max_lat=37,
    min_lon=-98,
    max_lon=-97,
    lat_lines=np.arange(36, 37.25, 0.25),
    lon_lines=np.arange(-98, -96.75, 0.25),
)
Reflectivity Difference   XSAPR Southwest - XSPAR Southeast

Plot a Histogram for Comparison

Another way of plotting the comparison here is using a 2-dimensional histogram,which is more helpful in this case where our scans don’t neccessarily match exactly in time.

# Include elevations above the lowest one
incl_gates = np.argwhere(radar_sw_mapped_to_radar_se.elevation["data"] > 1.0)

# Filter the reflectivity fields using the filter created above
refl_se = reflectivity_se_radar[incl_gates, :]
refl_sw = reflectivity_sw_radar[incl_gates, :]

# Make sure not include masked values
values_without_mask = np.logical_and(~refl_se.mask, ~refl_sw.mask)
refl_se = refl_se[values_without_mask]
refl_sw = refl_sw[values_without_mask]

# Set the bins for our histogram
bins = np.arange(-10, 60, 1)

# Create the 2D histogram using the flattened numpy arrays
hist = np.histogram2d(refl_se.flatten(), refl_sw.flatten(), bins=bins)[0]
hist = np.ma.masked_where(hist == 0, hist)

# Setup our figure
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(8, 6))

# Create a 1-1 comparison
x, y = np.meshgrid((bins[:-1] + bins[1:]) / 2.0, (bins[:-1] + bins[1:]) / 2.0)
c = plt.pcolormesh(x, y, np.log10(hist.T), cmap="pyart_HomeyerRainbow")

# Add a colorbar and labels
plt.colorbar(c, label="$log_{10}$ counts")
plt.xlabel("XSAPR Southeast $Z_{H}$ [dBZ]")
plt.ylabel("XSAPR Southwest $Z_{H}$ [dBZ]")

plt.show()
plot compare two radars gatemapper

Total running time of the script: (0 minutes 37.844 seconds)

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