Robert C. Cifelli

Bio: Robert C. Cifelli is an academic researcher from Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. The author has contributed to research in topics: Precipitation & Rain gauge. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 56 citations.

The Effect of Vertical Air Motions on Rain Rates and Median Volume Diameter Determined from Combined UHF and VHF Wind Profiler Measurements and Comparisons with Rain Gauge Measurements

Abstract: Two different frequency radar wind profilers (920 and 50 MHz) were used to retrieve rain rates from a long-lasting rainfall event observed near Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, during the 1993–94 wet season. In this technique, 50-MHz data are used to derive the vertical air motion parameters (vertical velocity and spectral width); the 920-MHz data are then used to obtain the precipitation characteristics with the vertical air motion corrections. A comparison of the retrieved rain rates with rain gauge measurements shows excellent agreement. A detailed examination of the mean vertical velocity and spectral width corrections in the rain retrieval shows that the error due to an uncorrected mean vertical velocity can be as large as 100%, and the error for an uncorrected spectral width was about 10% for the range of mean vertical velocity and spectral width considered. There was a strong functional dependence between the retrieved mean vertical velocity and percentage difference between observed...

Using Dual-Polarized Radar and Dual-Frequency Profiler for DSD Characterization: A Case Study from Darwin, Australia

Abstract: Comparisons are made between the reflectivity Z, median volume diameter D0, and rain rate R from a dual-frequency profiler and the C-band polarimetric radar (C-POL), which are both located near Darwin, Australia. Examples from the premonsoon “buildup” regime and the monsoon (oceanic) regime are used to illustrate the excellent agreement between the dual-profiler retrievals and the polarimetric radar-based retrievals. This work builds on similar works that were limited in scope to shallow tropical showers and predominantly stratiform rain events. The dual-frequency profiler retrievals of D0 and R herein are based on ensemble statistics, whereas the polarimetric radar retrievals are based on algorithms derived by using one season of disdrometer data from Darwin along with scattering simulations. The latest drop shape versus D relation is used as well as the canting angle distribution results obtained from the 80-m fall bridge experiment in the scattering simulations. The scatterplot of D0 from dual...

Drop-Size Distribution Characteristics in Tropical Mesoscale Convective Systems

Abstract: Drop-size distribution characteristics were retrieved in eight tropical mesoscale convective systems (MCS) using a dual-frequency (UHF and VHF) wind profiler technique. The MCSs occurred near Darwin, Australia, during the 1993/94 wet season and were representative of the monsoon (oceanic) regime. The retrieved drop-size parameters were compared with corresponding rain gauge and disdrometer data, and it was found that there was good agreement between the measurements, lending credence to the profiler retrievals of drop-size distribution parameters. The profiler data for each MCS were partitioned into a three-tier classification scheme (i.e., convective, mixed convective–stratiform, and stratiform) based on a modified version of Williams et al to isolate the salient microphysical characteristics in different precipitation types. The resulting analysis allowed for an examination of the drop-size distribution parameters in each category for a height range of about 2.1 km in each MCS. In general, the ...

Simultaneous ambient air motion and raindrop size distributions retrieved from UHF vertical incident profiler observations

Abstract: [1] The raindrop size distribution is a fundamental quantity used to describe the characteristics of rain. Vertically pointing Doppler radar profilers are well suited to retrieve the raindrop size distributions because of their operating frequency and data collection methodology. Doppler radar profilers operating at UHF are sensitive to both Bragg scattering from the radio refractive index of turbulence and Rayleigh scattering from distributed targets. During light precipitation, both scattering processes are resolved in the Doppler velocity spectra. During moderate to heavy precipitation the ambient air motion is not resolved in the Doppler velocity spectra. The sans air motion (SAM) model is introduced in this study and uses only the Rayleigh scattering portion of the Doppler velocity spectrum to estimate the ambient vertical air motion, the spectral broadening, and the raindrop size distribution. The SAM model was applied to 915 MHz profiler observations in central Florida. There was good agreement between the SAM-model-retrieved rain rate and mass-weighted mean diameter at an altitude of 300 m with simultaneous surface disdrometer observations. The SAM model was applied to the profile of Doppler velocity spectra to yield estimates of rain rate, mass weighted mean diameter, and ambient vertical air motion from 300 m to just under the melting level at 4 km.

Raindrop size distribution variability estimated using ensemble statistics

Abstract: . Before radar estimates of the raindrop size distribution (DSD) can be assimilated into numerical weather prediction models, the DSD estimate must also include an uncertainty estimate. Ensemble statistics are based on using the same observations as inputs into several different models with the spread in the outputs providing an uncertainty estimate. In this study, Doppler velocity spectra from collocated vertically pointing profiling radars operating at 50 and 920 MHz were the input data for 42 different DSD retrieval models. The DSD retrieval models were perturbations of seven different DSD models (including exponential and gamma functions), two different inverse modeling methodologies (convolution or deconvolution), and three different cost functions (two spectral and one moment cost functions). Two rain events near Darwin, Australia, were analyzed in this study producing 26 725 independent ensembles of mass-weighted mean raindrop diameter Dm and rain rate R. The mean and the standard deviation (indicated by the symbols and σx) of Dm and R were estimated for each ensemble. For small ranges of or , histograms of σDm and σR were found to be asymmetric, which prevented Gaussian statistics from being used to describe the uncertainties. Therefore, 10, 50, and 90 percentiles of σDm and σR were used to describe the uncertainties for small intervals of or . The smallest Dm uncertainty occurred for between 0.8 and 1.8 mm with the 90th and 50th percentiles being less than 0.15 and 0.11 mm, which correspond to relative errors of less than 20% and 15%, respectively. The uncertainty increased for smaller and larger values. The uncertainty of R increased with . While the 90th percentile uncertainty approached 0.6 mm h−1 for a 2 mm h−1 rain rate (30% relative error), the median uncertainty was less than 0.15 mm h−1 at the same rain rate (less than 8% relative error). This study addresses retrieval error and does not attempt to quantify absolute or representativeness errors.

Vertical Air Motion Retrieved from Dual-Frequency Profiler Observations

Abstract: The 50-MHz profiler operating near Darwin, Northwest Territory, Australia, is sensitive to both turbulent clear-air (Bragg) and hydrometeor (Rayleigh) scattering processes. Below the radar bright band, the two scattering peaks are observed as two well-separated peaks in the Doppler velocity spectra. The Bragg scattering peak corresponds to the vertical air motion and the Rayleigh scattering peak corresponds to the hydrometeor motion. Within the radar bright band, the Rayleigh scattering peak intensity increases and the downward velocity decreases causing the hydrometeor peak to overlap or merge with the air motion peak. If the overlap of the two peaks is not taken into account, then the vertical air motion estimate will be biased downward. This study describes a filtering procedure that identifies and removes the downward bias in vertical air motions caused by hydrometeor contamination. This procedure uses a second collocated profiler sensitive to hydrometeor motion to identify contamination in th...