APPLICATIONS OF THE DIFFERENTIAL REFLECTIVITY RADAR TECHNIQUE: FOCUS ON ESTIMATION OF RAINFALL PARAMETERS AND MICROWAVE ATTENUATION PREDICTION

This study explores the application of the differential reflectivity radar method to estimate rainfall parameters by comparing radar-derived estimates with ground-based disdrometer and raingage measurements. The derivation of the empirical relationships linking the rainfall parameters rainfall rate (R), water content (M) and median volume diameter (D;The MAYPOLE '83 experiment involved the transformation of disdrometer measurements to the radar altitudes to account for drop size sorting due to different fall velocities within a narrow radar beam-width and resulted in a very good agreement between the radar- and disdrometer-derived parameters.;MAYPOLE '84 comparisons involved high raingage rainfall rates (R;The work also examines application of the Z;For the Ohio State Precipitation Experiments (OSPE, 1982) a systematic approach to select the appropriate radar volume to be compared with the disdrometer is described including a cross-correlation analysis between the (Z...