Improve radar object identification and tracking by keeping radar objects better separated
The goal is to improve radar object identification/tracking in ProbSevere by keeping radar objects better separated. Testing was done on 3 April 2018 and 23 May 2019 test cases and several iterations of settings with the w2segmotion command were used to determine the most optimal settings. This testing was done on hail and output was viewed with the WDSS2 GUI on awipsws.
Below is the control run command settings. These settings are what is used in the current version of radar object identification/tracking in ProbSevere.
w2segmotionll -i /data/jasonb/radar_data/20190523/code_index.xml -o /data/jasonb/radar_objs/20190523/merged_rad_objs -T MergedReflectivityQCComposite -d "40 57 5 -1" -t 0 -p 40,200,300:0:0,0,0 -k percent:75:4:0:4 -m MULTISTAGE:2:10:0 -X /home/jasonb/wdss2_v18-3/w2config/algs/clusterTable.xml
Through several iterations, the most optimal settings to use for radar object identification/tracking chosen are below. This was Run 7.
w2segmotionll -i /data/jasonb/radar_data/20190523/code_index.xml -o /data/jasonb/radar_objs/20190523/merged_rad_objs_7 -T MergedReflectivityQCComposite -d "45 57 5 -1" -t 0 -p 40,200,300:0:0,0,0 -k percent:50:1:0:1,percent:75:1:0:1 -m MULTISTAGE:2:10:0 -X /home/jasonb/wdss2_v18-3/w2config/algs/clusterTable.xml
The main changes (highlighted in command above) from the control run to Run 7 are: Minimum Reflectivity changed from 40 to 45 dBZ Smoothing filter (-k) changed from 75 percentage filter for 9X9 pixel box to median (50) percentage filter for 3X3 pixel box and 75 percentage filter for 3X3 pixel box.
An additional run was tested as well (Run 8) to see if more improvement could be made to Run 7. There were some fairly robust radar objects over extreme southern Missouri/northwest Arkansas that were missed in Run 7 due to the higher minimum Reflectivity threshold set at 45 dBZ and the minimum size of regions for scale 0 set to 40 pixels (see the example figures included). Run 8 sets a 42 dBZ minimum Reflectivity threshold and 35 pixels for the minimum size of regions for scale 0. Run 8 showed some improvement with detecting those radar objects at the expense of including weaker radar objects not desired during other times and locations that day.
Run 8 command settings (compared to Run 7 are highlighted) listed below: w2segmotionll -i /data/jasonb/radar_data/20190523/code_index.xml -o /data/jasonb/radar_objs/20190523/merged_rad_objs_7 -T MergedReflectivityQCComposite -d "42 57 5 -1" -t 0 -p 35,200,300:0:0,0,0 -k percent:50:1:0:1,percent:75:1:0:1 -m MULTISTAGE:2:10:0 -X /home/jasonb/wdss2_v18-3/w2config/algs/clusterTable.xml