ABSTRACT. One of the main challenges in weather radar data quality is electromagnetic interference. Often weather radars operate in frequency bands close to, or shared with, other telecommunication systems. This is the case of C and X-band weather radars managed by Arpa Piemonte, the environmental protection agency of Piemonte region, Italy. The amount of interferences received by these radars are affecting the data quality, especially for polarimetric observations. In Italy, like in the most European countries, operational weather radars operate at C-band, in the 5.6GHz band, sharing the frequency band with Radio Local Area Network (RLAN) and Wireless Local Area Network. These telecommunication systems are continuously increasing in rural areas as broadband Internet access points. The coexistence of C-band weather radar and WLAN is nowadays a primary topic in the weather radar community (Saltikoff 2016).
Concerning the X-band weather radar, electromagnetic interferences started a couple of years ago and their amount is increasing. The analysis of the interferences received during the month of October 2017 showed a day-night pattern, with interferences received from approximately 6 a.m. to 24 p.m. This typical pattern seems to be related to a human-related activity. Since the number X-band radars deployed in Europe is constantly increasing, such as in the United States, the coexistence of the weather radars with telecommunications system requires further investigations.
A method to preliminary detect the likely interfering sources is implemented based on the regional database of electromagnetic sources managed by Arpa Piemonte. This seminar gives a survey on the electromagnetic interference in weather radars located in North-West Italy, investigating their sources and the key-features of the interfering signals. Interference removal or mitigation tools will be developed based on the interfering signals features.
Author Biography. MATTIA VACCARONO was born in Ivrea, Italy, in 1990. He received the M.Sc (magna cum laude) in Physics from Turin University in 2015. Since 2016, he has been working in the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection (Arpa Piemonte) of Piedmont region, Italy. He is specialized in EMF measurements and project assessments. He is currently enrolled in Colorado State University, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, as PhD student, conducting research on weather radars and EMF interferences. Main research areas include coexistence of weather radars and telecommunication systems, radar calibration monitoring and radar data quality.