HydroClass algorithms

HydroClass is a collection of echo identification algorithms in the IRIS and the digital signal processor (RVP10). The HydroClass algorithms output an HCLASS data type of echo identification. It is analogous to other data types, such as DBZ, V, Zdr, and so on. For example, the HCLASS data type may be used as input to IRIS products such as PPI, CAPPI, XSECT, and WARN.

The HydroClass algorithms can be activated in many steps of radar data processing, depending on the customer use case:

  • RVP10 HydroClass processing

    Ray data is processed in RVP10, and the bin level class assignments are output in real-time for each range bin. This approach is well-suited to applications where IRIS software is not active since the particle type can be displayed directly by your display software.

  • RVP10 and IRIS/Radar processing

    The identification of convection and stratiform rain is based on vertical radar echo structures, which show up in volumes of sweep data. These data are available in the processes of IRIS/Radar. The HydroClass classification of convective and stratiform rain is implemented as part of the IRIS/Radar real-time process.

  • IRIS HydroClass processing

    Dual-polarization data comes from RVP10 or from a third party processor, and is passed to an IRIS/Radar or an IRIS/Analysis system that is enabled with the HydroClass feature. The bin level algorithms produce HCLASS ingest data, which can be formatted as RAW products for archival or for rerouting in the network. HCLASS products are color-coded maps of precipitation classification categories, which can be output to and displayed on other IRIS workstations and IRIS/Web clients. Output of the GIF and other standard image formats is also supported. Archived RAW data can also be reprocessed into classes.