Active rain-gauge concept for liquid clouds using W-band and S-band Doppler radars

Leyda V. Leon-Colon; Sandra L. Cruz-Pol; Stephen M. Sekelsky

doi:10.1117/12.462999

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18 April 2003 Active rain-gauge concept for liquid clouds using W-band and S-band Doppler radars

Leyda V. Leon-Colon, Sandra L. Cruz-Pol, Stephen M. Sekelsky

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Proceedings Volume 4882, Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere VII; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.462999
Event: International Symposium on Remote Sensing, 2002, Crete, Greece

Abstract

The use of multi-frequency radar's Doppler Spectrum to study different aspects of precipitation has demonstrated its utility as an accurate profiling rain-gauge method. Recent studies used this concept to retrieve the drop-size distribution and vertical air motion in rain using dual-frequency Cloud Profiling Radar System, which operates at 33 GHz (Ka-band) and 95 GHz (W-band). This study was performed for low to moderate rain-rates because the use of the Ka-band frequency limited the accuracy of the measurements for high rain-rates due to the attenuation this signal suffers while it passes through the cloud. In this work we use a non-attenuating frequency, 2.8 GHz, instead of the Ka-band, to obtain measurements over a wider dynamic range of rain conditions, extending the active rain-gauge concept to heavier rain-rates. The W-band signal provides accurate measurement of the vertical air motion in rain. The actual drop's shapes must be corrected for heavy rain in which case large non-spherical raindrops exist. Data will be processed as suggested by Firda et al., 1999 considering the drop's shape corrections. This research's goal is to develop IDL codes to align, process, and analyze the collected data to retrieve several cloud characterization parameters, such as drop size distribution and vertical air motion that would be used to study the inner processes of rain. Rain-rate approximations and the vertical air motion retrieval will be presented.

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Leyda V. Leon-Colon, Sandra L. Cruz-Pol, and Stephen M. Sekelsky "Active rain-gauge concept for liquid clouds using W-band and S-band Doppler radars", Proc. SPIE 4882, Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere VII, (18 April 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.462999

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