Estimating beam pointing of vertically pointing cloud radars using radiosonde measurements

Accurate beam pointing is essential for vertically pointing cloud radars, as even small tilts away from zenith introduce projections of horizontal wind into Doppler velocity measurements. These effects can bias the interpretation of vertical air motion and hydrometeor fall speeds, leading to systematic errors in cloud and precipitation retrievals. We present the U -normalized velocity–direction display (UN-VDD) method to estimate and validate radar beam pointing angle using collocated radiosonde observations. When the radar beam is tilted, the observed Doppler velocity exhibits a cosine dependence on wind direction due to projection of horizontal wind onto the beam, with an amplitude proportional to wind speed. By normalizing Doppler velocity with horizontal wind speed, this geometric dependence can be isolated, enabling quantitative estimation of off-zenith beam pointing. The method is applied to the Ka-band ARM Zenith Radar (KAZR) and the Marine W-band ARM Cloud Radar (MWACR) during the Cloud and Precipitation Experiment at kennaook (CAPE-k). Results show a clear wind-direction dependence consistent with small but measurable beam pointing offsets. Differences in Doppler velocity between KAZR and MWACR further reduce the influence of hydrometeor fall velocity and vertical air motion, providing an independent constraint on relative pointing errors. Application to KAZR observations at ARM fixed sites and recent field campaigns further demonstrates that the method is robust across a range of atmospheric conditions. This approach provides a practical and scalable tool for evaluating radar beam pointing using routinely available radiosonde data, with direct implications for improving the accuracy of ARM cloud and precipitation products.