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Jon W. Zeitler
Science and Operations Officer
National Weather Service
Austin/San Antonio Forecast Office
Energy Scattering
As pulse volumes within the radar beam encounter targets, energy will be
scattered in all directions. A very small portion of the intercepted energy will be
backscattered toward the radar. The degree or amount of backscatter is
determined by target:
size (radar cross section)
shape (round, oblate, flat, etc.)
state (liquid, frozen, mixed, dry, wet)
concentration (number of particles per unit volume)
We are concerned with two types of scattering, Rayleigh and non-Rayleigh.
Rayleigh scattering occurs with targets whose diameter (D) is much smaller (D <
/16) than the radar wavelength. The WSR-88D's wavelength is approximately
10.7 cm, so Rayleigh scattering occurs with targets whose diameters are less than
or equal to about 7 mm or ~0.4 inch. Raindrops seldom exceed 7 mm so all liquid
drops are Rayleigh scatters.
Potential problem: Nearly all hailstones are non-Rayleigh scatterers due to their
larger diameters.
dBZ = 10log10Z
Beam-Filling
Range Folding
Storms or Bats?
Rainfall Rate
Rainfall Rate
Rainfall Rate
BREAK!
Applications of Dual
Polarization Radar
Rainfall Estimation (vast improvement)
Bright Band Detection (vast improvement)
Clutter Filtering/Data Quality Improvement
(vast improvement)
Rain/Snow Discrimination (vast improvement)
Hail Detection (some improvement)
Updraft Location (some improvement)
Tornado Detection (some improvement)
Polarimetric Variables
Backscattering:
Zh - reflectivity factor for horizontal polarization
ZDR - differential reflectivity
|hv(0)| - co-polar correlation coefficient
Z hh
Z DR 10 log10
Z vv
Ev
Eh
Ev
Eh
-3.5
-3
-2.5
-2
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0.5
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
<<<<<
HAIL
>>>>>
Melting (Oblate)
hv
Correlation Coefficient ( hv): A correlation between the
reflected horizontal and vertical power returns. It is a good
indicator of regions where there is a mixture of precipitation
types, such as rain and snow.
Affected by:
Hydrometeor types, phases, shapes,
orientations
Presence of large hail
hv Usage
Identify hail growth regions in deep moist
convection (mixtures of hydrometeors)
Reduce ground clutter/AP contamination
(hv very low in these areas)
Identify giant hail ???
hv
SNOW
~0.85-1.00
CLUTTER
~0.5-0.85
CHAFF
~0.2-0.5
Reflectivity (Zh)
hv Minimumin Theory
DP H V
f (r ) f (r )
K
2r r
DP
DP
DP
DP,
0.5
1.5
2.5
<<<<<
HAIL
>>>>>
Melting (Oblate)
Kdp Usage
1.
2.
14 May 2003
HV
Z
HCA
Z
DR
r HV (0)
*
S vv S hh
S 2
hh
1/ 2
2 1/ 2
vv
CC < 0.70
Non-hydrometeors present
* Types, sizes, shapes, orientations, etc.
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.85
0.9
0.91
0.92
0.93
0.94
0.95
0.96
0.97
0.98
0.99
<<<<<
HAIL
>>>>>
Dry / Small
CRYSTALS
<<Melting Layer>>
NonMeteorological
Regime
Overlap
Meteorological
Regime
Precip
CC Limitations (Gotchas)
High error in low signal-to-noise
ratios (SNR)
If low, errors increase in other
dual-pol variables
R(Z)
Spring hail
cases
Cold season
stratiform rain
Hybrid Hydroclass
R(Z ) 0.017 Z
0.714
0.882
sign( KDP)
0.770
1.67
ZDR
Conditions
Echo
Classes
Not
computed
GC ,UK
NE, BI
R(Z, ZDR)
RA
R(Z, ZDR)
HR, BD
R(KDP)
Rain/Hail is classified and echo is below the top of the melting layer
RH
0.8*R(Z)
Rain/Hail is classified and echo is above the top of the melting layer
RH
0.8*R(Z)
Graupel is classified
GR
0.6*R(Z)
WS
R(Z)
Dry Snow is classified and echo is in or below the top of the melting DS
layer
2.8*R(Z)
Dry Snow classified and is echo above the top of the melting layer
DS
2.8*R(Z)
IC
ML Product in AWIPS
Hail Detection
Dual-Pol Hail Signature
High Z (> 45 dBZ)
Low ZDR (-0.5 to 1 dB), Low KDP (-0.5 to
1 o/km) if dry or mostly dry
Reduced CC (0.85 to 0.95)
Limitations
Size detection?
Hail signatures may get diluted by
Rain mixing with hail
Far range
Rain/Snow Discrimination
Z
RAIN
< 45 dBZ
SNOW
< 45 dBZ
ZDR
0 to 2 dB
-0.5 to 6 dB
KDP
0 to 0.6 deg/km
-0.6 to 1 deg/km
CC
>0.95
Snow
Polarimetric signatures (ZDR and KDP) do not have
dependence on Z
ZDR and KDP typically increase with height
Differences between warm and cold snow
Cold snow has higher polarimetric variables than warm
snow
Z/ZDR/CC
Characteristics
High Density
High Concentration
Oblate, Horizontal Orientation
Small size
Z < 35 dBZ
ZDR 0-6 dB
CC > 0.95
Decreasing density
Decreasing Concentration
Less oblate
Larger size
Z increasing
ZDR decreasing
0 > ZDR > 0.5 dB
CC > 0.95
Snow
ZDR
Rain
KDP
CC
KDP
ZDR
CC
Insects/Biological scatterers
Low reflectivity (Z) -- (< 35 dBZ)
Horizontally-oriented with elongated shape: very high
ZDR (> 2 dB up to 6 dB)
Heterogeneity causes very low correlation coefficients
(< 0.70)
Tornado Detection
Tornado debris is large (from radar perspective),
irregularly shaped and randomly oriented
Z > 45 dBZ
ZDR near 0 dB
CC very low (< 0.8)
A good sign that a tornado is already in progress!
Diagnostic ONLY
Has only been verified for EF-1 or greater
tornadoes at relatively close ranges
ZDR
TDS!
CC