ISO 23032:2022

Overview

ISO 23032:2022 - "Meteorology - Ground-based remote sensing of wind - Radar wind profiler" provides international guidelines for the design, manufacture, installation, operation and maintenance of radar wind profilers (WPRs). The standard explains the measurement principle for ground‑based Doppler radars that profile wind in the troposphere and boundary layer, and sets out best practices for system hardware, software, performance assessment, quality control, data products and formats, installation and upkeep.

Keywords: ISO 23032:2022, radar wind profiler, WPR, wind profiling radar, ground-based remote sensing, Doppler, meteorology

Key topics and technical requirements

• Measurement principle (Clause 5): Describes spectral echo parameters, scatterer sources (turbulent scattering, partial reflection, precipitation echoes), clutter and radio‑frequency interference; covers methods for wind velocity retrieval (e.g., Doppler beam swinging and spaced‑antenna techniques).
• System guidance (Clause 6): Frequency selection, principal hardware components (antenna, transmitter, receiver), signal processing and observation control units; environmental considerations for deployment.
• System performance (Clause 7): Definitions and guidance on range, volume and time resolution, Nyquist limits, radar sensitivity, measurement range and accuracy for assessing WPR performance.
• Quality control (Clause 8): Recommended QC procedures in digital signal processing to ensure reliable velocity and spectrum products.
• Products and data formats (Clause 9): Definitions of measurement products, processing levels and recommended operational/scientific file formats (WMO BUFR and NetCDF examples are referenced).
• Installation and maintenance (Clauses 10–11): Site selection, licensing, infrastructure, clutter/interference mitigation, operational monitoring, preventive and corrective maintenance, spare‑parts and software management.
• Informative annexes: Practical material including radar equation representation, precipitation reflectivity, data assimilation impacts and real‑world data format examples.

Practical applications

ISO 23032:2022 supports reliable deployment and use of WPRs for:

• Atmospheric monitoring and operational weather forecasting
• High‑resolution boundary‑layer and turbulence profiling for research
• Providing wind observations for numerical weather prediction (NWP) assimilation
• Supporting national meteorological networks and routine operational services

Who should use this standard

• National and regional meteorological agencies and network operators
• WPR system designers, manufacturers and integrators
• Data centers and observation managers responsible for quality control and distribution
• Atmospheric researchers and modelers incorporating profiler data into analyses

Related standards and interoperability

ISO 23032:2022 aligns with meteorological data exchange practices by referencing operational formats (WMO BUFR) and scientific formats (NetCDF). Users should coordinate with radio licensing and electromagnetic spectrum regulations and with WMO guidance when integrating WPRs into operational observing systems.

For procurement, system specification and operational deployment, ISO 23032:2022 is a practical reference to ensure consistent, interoperable and quality‑assured radar wind profiler installations.