Jameson, A.R.; Larsen, M.L. Preliminary Statistical Characterizations of the Lowest Kilometer Time–Height Profiles of Rainfall Rate Using a Vertically Pointing Radar. Atmosphere2022, 13, 635.
Jameson, A.R.; Larsen, M.L. Preliminary Statistical Characterizations of the Lowest Kilometer Time–Height Profiles of Rainfall Rate Using a Vertically Pointing Radar. Atmosphere 2022, 13, 635.
Jameson, A.R.; Larsen, M.L. Preliminary Statistical Characterizations of the Lowest Kilometer Time–Height Profiles of Rainfall Rate Using a Vertically Pointing Radar. Atmosphere2022, 13, 635.
Jameson, A.R.; Larsen, M.L. Preliminary Statistical Characterizations of the Lowest Kilometer Time–Height Profiles of Rainfall Rate Using a Vertically Pointing Radar. Atmosphere 2022, 13, 635.
Abstract
A realistic approach for gathering high-resolution observation of the rainfall rate, R, in the vertical plane is to use data from vertical pointing Doppler radars. After accounting for the vertical air velocity and attenuation, it is possible to determine the fine, spatially resolved drop size spectra and to calculate R for further statistical analyses. The first such results in a vertical plane are reported here. Specifically, we present results using MRR-Pro Doppler radar observations at resolutions of ten meters in height over the lowest 1.28 km as well as ten seconds in time over four sets of observations using two different radars at different locations. Both correlation functions and power spectra are useful for translating observations and numerical model outputs of R from on one scale down to other scales that may be more appropriate to particular applications such as flood warnings and soil erosion, for example. However, it was found in all cases that while locally applicable radial power spectra could be calculated, because of statistical heterogeneity, most of the power spectra lost all generality and proper correlation functions could not be computed in general except for one 17 minute interval. Nevertheless, these results are still useful since they could be combined to develop catalogs of power spectra over different meteorological conditions and in different climatological settings and locations. Furthermore, even within the limitations of these data, this approach is being used to gain a deeper understanding of rainfall to be reported in a forthcoming paper.
Keywords
raindrop size distributions (DSD) from Doppler radar; computing radial power spectra using radar Doppler spectra; vertical pointing Doppler rain observations
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science and Meteorology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
