The field portions of a major experiment within the Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP), the GARP Atlantic Tropical Experiment (GATE), were conducted from June through September 1974. A central objective of GATE was to establish a high quality data base for studying the interactions between the large scale circulations and the smaller scale weather systems over the tropical Atlantic Ocean. Better understanding of these interactions is needed to improve the parameterization of convection in the numerical weather prediction models. Steps were taken to provide for (1) accurate calibration of the radar hardware; (2) adequate pre-GATE testing of the radar systems; (3) consistency, in the mean, between the reflectivity fields from the individual radars, based on various intercomparison techniques; (4) assessment and removal of systematic biases; (5) verification of estimated systematic biases based on 'ground-truth' comparisons with the shipboard rain gages; and (6) assessment of probable accuracies of the final rainfall estimates. C-band radar data, supplemented with shipboard rain-gage data, formed the primary data base for deriving the rainfall estimates. Shipboard meteorological radar measurements were taken with a total of four C-band and four X-band.
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