Artifacts in the profiler data

1)  A strip of higher power at and above 7.5 km due to the increased sensitivity of the high mode.  

2) Vertical strips of low signal power and (usually) random velocity estimates. Wind profilers have the potential to cause radio interference to six satellites that carry sensitive receivers used to locate low-power emergency beacons from downed aircraft and ships in distress. To minimize the possibility of interference, the transmitter at each profiler site is turned off whenever any of the six polar-orbiting satellites are scheduled to pass nearby. The transmitter inhibit duration is 6 minutes, and occurs about 7 times daily (varying between 4 and 10 times) for each site in the network.

3)  Isolated points or vertical strips of high signal power. Discontinuous high signal power in time are usually caused by aircraft flying through the main beam and/or a sidelobe sometime during the 1 minute dwell time in each mode.  

4)  Low signal power in the lowest few gates. Sensitivity Time Control (STC) is used to attenuate the very strong signals returned from the lower atmosphere and close-by ground clutter targets in the first few range gates. Without this signal attenuation, the profiler's receiver would routinely saturate due to the strong signals and produce incorrect wind measurements.