An example of mean mass-weighted drop size estimates from the NOAA X-band polarimetric radar deployed in Auburn (AUB), California during the HMT-West 2006 field season
An example of mean mass-weighted drop size estimates from the NOAA X-band polarimetric radar deployed in Auburn (AUB), California during the HMT-West 2006 field season.
Contact:  Sergey Matrosov
January 27, 2012

HMT Publication Notice

A journal article entitled Polarimetric Radar-Based Estimates of Spatial Variability in Characteristic Sizes of Raindrops in Stratiform Rainfall, by Sergey Y. Matrosov appeared in the December 2011 issue of the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology.

Polarimetric X-band radar measurements of differential reflectivity collected during HMT-West deployments in California were used for retrieving mean mass-weighted raindrop sizes. The retrievals were used to assess the variability of raindrop sizes at different spatial scales. Quantifying the magnitude and variability of raindrop drop size at different scales is critical for obtaining accurate quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) with spaceborne and ground-based weather radars which do not have polarization diversity. QPE is a major activity area in HMT and these results emphasize the importance of gap-filling radar measurements to improving polarimetric radar-based QPE in orographic terrain.

The study shows that as average drop size increases, the drop variability generally diminishes. The diminishing trend corresponds to a factor of about 1.5 -2 depending on spatial scale, which varied in this study from 4 to 20 km. The drop size variability also decreases with the spatial resolution scale and is, on average, 0.25-0.30 mm for the smallest scale. The presented research also points out that polarimetric radar can effectively be used for estimating mean drop sizes that are larger than about 1 mm. Inferring smaller sizes results in larger relative errors which could be of the order of measurement noise. The results of this study will lead to better QPE schemes based on radar measurements.

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