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Mechanisms of formation of differential reflectivity columns are investigated in simulations of a midlatitude summertime hailstorm with hailstones up to several centimeters in diameter. Simulations are performed using a new version of the Hebrew University Cloud Model (HUCM) with spectral bin microphysics. A polarimetric radar forward operator is used to calculate radar reflectivity and differential reflectivity ZDR. It is shown that ZDR columns are associated with raindrops and with hail particles growing in a wet growth regime within convective updrafts. The height and volume of ZDR columns increases with an increase in aerosol concentration. Small hail forming under clean conditions grows in updrafts largely in a dry growth regime corresponding to low ZDR. Characteristics of ZDR columns are highly correlated with vertical velocity, hail size, and aerosol concentration.

Several recent studies have implicated vertical wind shear in producing steady-state size sorting of a distribution of hydrometeors falling at their terminal velocity, which varies as a function of hydrometeor diameter. In particular, this mechanism has been invoked to explain both the strength and storm-relative orientation of the commonly observed differential reflectivity (ZDR) arc in supercell thunderstorms. However, the actual role of the shear has not been fully clarified. In this study, a simple analytical model is used to show that the fundamental source of size sorting is the storm-relative wind field itself and, in particular, its mean taken over the depth of the sorting layer. Wind shear is only strictly required for producing sustained size sorting in the special but common case of a precipitation source having a motion that lies on the hodograph (such as with the environmental winds at the source level). In supercells, the precipitation source (the rotating updraft) does not necessarily move with the winds at any level. It is shown that this off-hodograph propagation and the associated storm-relative mean wind is responsible for the positive correlation of size-sorting observables (such as ZDR) and storm-relative helicity that has been noted in previous work.

The low levels of supercell forward flanks commonly exhibit distinct differential reflectivity (ZDR) signatures, including the low-ZDR hail signature and the high-ZDR “arc.” The ZDR arc has been previously associated with size sorting of raindrops in the presence of vertical wind shear; here this model is extended to include size sorting of hail. Idealized simulations of a supercell storm observed by the Norman, Oklahoma (KOUN), polarimetric radar on 1 June 2008 are performed using a multimoment bulk microphysics scheme, in which size sorting is allowed or disallowed for hydrometeor species. Several velocity–diameter relationships for the hail fall speed are considered, as well as fixed or variable bulk densities that span the graupel-to-hail spectrum. A T-matrix-based emulator is used to derive polarimetric fields from the hydrometeor state variables. Size sorting of hail is found to have a dominant impact on ZDR and can result in a ZDR arc from melting hail even when size sorting is disallowed in the rain field. The low-ZDR hail core only appears when size sorting is allowed for hail. The mean storm-relative wind in a deep layer is found to align closely with the gradient in mean mass diameter of both rain and hail, with a slight shift toward the storm-relative mean wind below the melting level in the case of rain. The best comparison with the observed 1 June 2008 supercell is obtained when both rain and hail are allowed to sort, and the bulk density and associated fall-speed curve for hail are predicted by the model microphysics.

Early radar echo development in trade wind cumulus clouds is studied using the equivalent reflectivity factor Ze combined with the differential reflectivity Zdr. The clouds studied are among the largest of trade wind cumulus, developing significantly positive values of Zdr and attaining at least about a 30-dBZ equivalent reflectivity factor. The measures used for analysis are values calculated for entire constant–elevation angle sweeps through the clouds and entire volume scans—not maximum single-pulse-volume values. The radar echo evolution follows fairly closely the Marshall–Palmer distribution with scatter toward higher values of Zdr especially in the earliest stages of echo intensification, where some of the scatter in the whole-sweep values is caused by size sorting. The data provide no evidence for an important role of ultragiant aerosols (UGA) in initiating coalescence. They are in strong contrast with similar data from a cloud over northern Alabama that do suggest a major role for UGA in producing several-mm-diameter raindrops that dominate its weak, early radar echo.

The early histories of radar echo and polarization differential reflectivity (ZDR) from growing cumulus clouds observed in Florida with a 10-cm-wavelength radar are reported in detail. Raindrops 1 to several millimeters in diameter are present at about cloud-base level in most cases as soon as any identifiable precipitation echo is seen within cloud (distinct from Bragg scattering and echo from cloud droplets). This is in most cases by the time of the first 10-dBZ radar echo aloft. The very early occurrence of large drops is consistent with origination directly from coalescence on ultragiant aerosol. However, they appear to exist so early and so low in the clouds as to be unexpected if the cumulus were single, vigorous thermals. The explanation may lie in the presence of a more gradual, very early cloud stage that is generally not observed in any detail. Simultaneous Ze and ZDR measurements in the early stages of developing, warm cumulus will provide a powerful test of understanding the onset of ...

We examine the utility of the correlation coefficient between linear orthogonally polarized echoes for determining precipitation type and gauging hail size. Models and measurements from pure rain coincide in predicting very high correlations (0.98); similar results are obtained with pure hail. Several mechanisms could cause the lowering of correlation but the behavior of the examined data is definitely attributed to a mixture of hydrometeor types. This decrease is an indicator of hail size; it is shown theoretically that in at least two other realistic situations the correlation would decrease with hail size. For the examined case a model of hail shape and orientation during fall is able to reproduce the essential features of polarimetric measurements. It suggests, together with our data and data from other investigators, that substantial negative differential reflectivity (about −1 dB) in a region of high reflectivity factor values is caused by hailstones larger than about 2 cm in diameter.

Precipitation comprising rain and hail is studied. Specifically, techniques to identify and quantify such precipitation in terms of rain and hail fall rates using dual polarized radar data, are presented. Included for consideration are ZH, the reflectivity factor for horizontal polarization, ZDR, the differential reflectivity, and KDP, the differential propagation constant. A variety of simple models of mixed-phase precipitation are first examined. Electromagnetic scattering computations are performed to simulate and study the behavior of ZH, ZDR, and KDP. It is shown that it is possible to distinguish the mixed-phase precipitation from either rain or hail by using ZH, KDP pair and also to infer the thermodynamic phase and orientation from ZH, ZDR pair. On the basis of physical principles, it is shown that KDP senses primarily liquid water in the form of raindrops even when these are mixed with hailstones. The self-consistency Of ZH, ZDR, and KDP is then exploited to estimate both the rain and ha...