Distinguishing between Warm and Stratiform Rain Using Polarimetric Radar Measurements

oleh: Sergey Y. Matrosov

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2021-01-01

Deskripsi

Modeled statistical differential reflectivity–reflectivity (i.e., <i>Z<sub>DR</sub>–Z<sub>e</sub></i>) correspondences for no bright-band warm rain and stratiform bright-band rain are evaluated using measurements from an operational polarimetric weather radar and independent information about rain types from a vertically pointing profiler. It is shown that these relations generally fit observational data satisfactorily. Due to a relative abundance of smaller drops, <i>Z<sub>DR</sub></i> values for warm rain are, on average, smaller than those for stratiform rain of the same reflectivity by a factor of about two (in the logarithmic scale). A <i>Z<sub>DR</sub>–Z<sub>e</sub></i> relation, representing a mean of such relations for warm and stratiform rains, can be utilized to distinguish between warm and stratiform rain types using polarimetric radar measurements. When a mean offset of observational <i>Z<sub>DR</sub></i> data is accounted for and reflectivities are greater than 16 dBZ, about 70% of stratiform rains and approximately similar amounts of warm rains are classified correctly using the mean <i>Z<sub>DR</sub>–Z<sub>e</sub></i> relation when applied to averaged data. Since rain rate estimators for warm rain are quite different from other common rain types, identifying and treating warm rain as a separate precipitation category can lead to better quantitative precipitation estimations.