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
01 Dec 1998-Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology (American Meteorological Society)-Vol. 15, Iss: 6, pp 1306-1319
TL;DR: In this article, 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.
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...
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compare 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.
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...
171 citations
Cites methods from "The Effect of Vertical Air Motions ..."
...We refer to prior work for technical specifications regarding these profilers (e.g., Rajopadhyaya et al. 1998; May et al. 2001; Cifelli et al. 2000)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, drop-size distribution characteristics were retrieved in eight tropical mesoscale convective systems (MCS) using a dual-frequency (UHF and VHF) wind profiler technique.
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 ...
79 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a sans air motion (SAM) model was introduced to estimate the Rayleigh scattering portion of the Doppler velocity spectrum to estimate ambient vertical air motion, the spectral broadening, and the raindrop size distribution.
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.
57 citations
TL;DR: In this article, 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, 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).
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.
55 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a filtering procedure was proposed to identify and remove the downward bias in vertical air motions caused by hydrometeor contamination in a 50MHz profiler operating near Darwin, Northwest Territory, Australia.
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...
53 citations
References
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Book•
01 Jan 1971
TL;DR: This article reviewed the principles of Doppler radar and emphasized the quantitative measurement of meteorological parameters, and illustrated the relation of radar data and images to atmospheric phenomena such as tornadoes, microbursts, waves, turbulence, density currents, hurricanes, and lightning.
Abstract: This book reviews the principles of Doppler radar and emphasizes the quantitative measurement of meteorological parameters. It illustrates the relation of Doppler radar data and images to atmospheric phenomena such as tornadoes, microbursts, waves, turbulence, density currents, hurricanes, and lightning.
Geared toward upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, this text was written by two scientists at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Topics include electromagnetic waves and propagation, weather signals and their Doppler spectra, weather signal processing, measurements of precipitation and turbulence, and observations of winds and storms as well as fair weather. Radar images and photographs of weather phenomena highlight the text.
2,178 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a three-parameter gamma distribution was used for dual-measurement techniques to determine rainfall rate, and the relationship between pairs of integral rainfall parameters using a three parameter gamma drop size distribution was investigated.
Abstract: Empirical analyses are shown to imply variation in the shape or analytical form of the raindrop size distribution consistent with that observed experimentally and predicted theoretically. These natural variations in distribution shape are demonstrated by deriving relationships between pairs of integral rainfall parameters using a three parameter gamma drop size distribution and comparing the expressions with empirical. There comparisons produce values for the size distribution parameters which display a systematic dependence of one of the parameters on another between different rainfall types as well as from moment to moment within a given rainfall type. The implications of this finding are explored in terms of the use of a three-parameter gamma distribution in dual-measurement techniques to determine rainfall rate.
1,237 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a comprehensive review and extension of the theoretical bases for the measurement of the characteristics of rain and snow with vertically pointing Doppler radar are presented, where the drop size distribution in rain can be computed from the Doppher spectrum, provided that the updraft can be estimated, but difficulties are involved in the case of snow.
Abstract: A comprehensive review and extension of the theoretical bases for the measurement of the characteristics of rain and snow with vertically pointing Doppler radar are presented. The drop size distribution in rain can be computed from the Doppler spectrum, provided that the updraft can be estimated, but difficulties are involved in the case of snow. Doppler spectra and their moments are computed for rain by using various power law relations of fall speed υ versus particle diameter D and an exponential fit to the actual fall speed data. In the former case, there is no sharp upper bound to the spectra and all the spectral moments increase with rainfall rate R without limit; in the latter case, there is a sharp upper bound of the spectra corresponding to the limiting terminal velocity of raindrops, and the spectral moments approach an asymptote. Accordingly, the power laws are useful approximations over only limited ranges of precipitation rate. A comparison of theoretical and experimental mean Doppler velocity 〈υ〉 as a function of radar reflectivity factor Z shows that the empirical relation 〈υ〉 = 2.6Z0.107 of J. Joss and A. Waldvogel seems to be the only practical relation; even so, the scatter in 〈υ〉 is about ±1 m sec−1. This is also the kind of error to be expected in measuring updraft speeds by present methods. Such updraft errors result in unacceptably large errors in the drop number concentration estimated from Doppler spectra. In the absence of updrafts the mean Doppler velocity 〈υ〉 is uniquely related to Λ, the slope of the exponential drop size distribution. Simultaneous measurements of Z and 〈υ〉 can then be used to estimate N0, Λ, D0, M, and R, where N0 is the intercept of the exponential drop size distribution at D = 0, D0 is the median volume diameter, and M is the liquid-water content.
788 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the terminal velocity of cloud and precipitation size drops has been analyzed for three physically distinct flow regimes: 1) slip flow about a water drop treated as rigid sphere at negligible Reynolds numbers, 2) continuum flow past a non-circulating water drop of equilibrium shape with an unsteady wake at moderate to large Reynolds numbers.
Abstract: The terminal velocity of cloud and precipitation size drops has been analyzed for three physically distinct flow regimes: 1) slip flow about a water drop treated as rigid sphere at negligible Reynolds numbers, 2) continuum flow past a water drop treated as a rigid sphere with a steady wake at low and intermediate Reynolds numbers, and 3) continuum flow around a non-circulating water drop of equilibrium shape with an unsteady wake at moderate to large Reynolds numbers. In the lower regime the effect of slip was given by the first-order Knudsen number correction to Stokes drag. In the middle regime a semiempirical drag relation for a rigid sphere was used to obtain a formula for the Reynolds number in terms of the Davies number. In the upper regime a correlation of wind tunnel measurements on falling drops was used in conjunction with sea level terminal velocities for raindrops to obtain a formula for the Reynolds number in terms of the Bond number and physical property number. The result for the u...
617 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an algorithm was developed that classifies precipitating clouds into either stratiform, mixed stratiform/convective, deep convective, or shallow convective clouds by analyzing the vertical structure of reflectivity, velocity, and spectral width derived from measurements made with the vertical beam of a 915-MHz Doppler wind profiler.
Abstract: An algorithm has been developed that classifies precipitating clouds into either stratiform, mixed stratiform/convective, deep convective, or shallow convective clouds by analyzing the vertical structure of reflectivity, velocity, and spectral width derived from measurements made with the vertical beam of a 915-MHz Doppler wind profiler. The precipitating clouds classified as stratiform and convective clouds match the physical and radar properties deduced by Doppler weather radars in the GATE and EMEX programs. The mixed stratiform/convective cloud category is a hybrid regime containing a melting-layer signature associated with stratiform clouds yet is turbulent above the melting level similar to convective clouds. Shallow convective clouds have hydrometeors confined entirely below the melting level implying that warm rain processes are occurring exclusively. The algorithm is illustrated by classifying precipitating clouds from 10 months of observations at Manus Island (2°S, 147°E) in the western...
209 citations