Radar Product Generator (RPG) - Product Generation
Based on operator input, the Radar Product Generator (RPG) generates products on a volume scan by volume scan basis. The RPG creates base products (Base Reflectivity, Base Radial Velocity, and Base Spectrum Width) at all elevations of the current Volume Coverage Pattern (VCP) directly from the base data received from the Radar Data Acquisition Unit (RDA). Derived products are also produced by the RPG using these base data as input.
In general, any product other than the three created directly from the base data are considered a derived product. Likewise, three products created from the dual-polarization base data stream (i.e., Differential Reflectivity, Correlation Coefficient, and Specific Differential Phase) are also considered to be base data. (NOTE: Some products, such as the Storm Relative Velocity Map, or SRM, product are often used like a base product, even though it is technically a derived product.) A good example of a derived product is Composite Reflectivity. The Composite Reflectivity product algorithm computes the maximum reflectivity at each grid box for all elevation angles and composites them into a single product. Other examples of derived products include:
- the Vertically Integrated Liquid (VIL) product,
- the various precipitation accumulation products, and
- the Tornadic Vortex Signature (TVS) product.
Details on each base product and most derived products available for display on the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) workstation are presented in DLOC Topic 5.
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