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Wind velocity is of great importance for weather monitoring, aviation hazard alerting, wind energy exploring, etc. Doppler radar is widely used to measure wind under rainy condition by sensing the raindrops entrained by the background wind. However, the Doppler velocity, which is a reflection of the raindrops’ velocity in radial direction, is not coincident with the background wind because of the strong inertia of raindrops. Efforts should be made to distinguish the difference between the raindrops’ velocity and the background wind velocity. In this article, we try to establish a relationship between the background wind velocity and the raindrops’ velocity by introducing a definition of the raindrops’ characteristic size, which is related to the velocity characterized by the strongest Doppler spectral component. It is found that the fusion of differential reflectivity and the depolarization ratio can serve as a good proxy for the estimation of the characteristic size. Simulation results for $S$/$C$/$X$-band radars and radar measurements verify the good performance of the proposed retrieval model for the characteristic size, which lays a solid foundation for the retrieval of the background wind velocity.

For any quantitative applications that use reflectivity and/or differential reflectivity, radar observations need to be compensated for attenuation effects due to precipitation. This paper presents a robust attenuation correction system (ACS) for dual-polarization radars correcting the reflectivity factor as well as differential reflectivity profiles. The major advantage of the algorithm described in this paper is that the procedures are immune to the bias effect of reflectivity and differential reflectivity. In addition, this method is not very sensitive to the variation of temperature. The proposed ACS has been evaluated with X-band radar observations simulated from drop size distribution derived from high-resolution S-band measurements observed by the CSU-CHILL radar. The evaluation of the proposed retrieval algorithm shows that the retrieved reflectivity and differential reflectivity provide an improvement over the conventional self-consistent attenuation correction technique with the differential phase constraint.

It is shown that the scattering resonance effects in echoes from migrating birds are so strong that a 10% frequency deviation within S-band can result in more than 10-dB changes in reflectivity values. Differential reflectivity values from adjacent polarimetric WSR-88D weather radars operating at offset frequencies can differ by several decibels in “clear air” echoes.

We consider weather radar measurements at simultaneous transmission and simultaneous reception of horizontal and vertical polarizations and show that the degree of polarization at simultaneous transmit (ps) is related to differential reflectivity and copolar correlation coefficient at simultaneous transmit (namely, ZDRs and ρhys). We evaluate the potential of degree of polarization at simultaneous transmit for weather radar applications. Ultimately, we explore the consequences of adjusting the transmit polarization state of dual-polarization weather radars to circular polarization.

A method is described for adjusting the far-field polarization of an electronically steered phased-array antenna. In this method, the polarization of a small subset of array elements is switched in order to reduce far-field cross-polarization of the overall array. The technique is intended for antennas used in polarimetric radars that measure quantities such as differential reflectivity (Zdr) and specific differential phase (KDP). In particular, it is appropriate for lower cost arrays where only one transmit or receive polarization is active at a time. In such arrays, it will reduce the number of measurements needed by one-third. Analysis of the tradeoffs in the technique is presented as well as examples in hypothetical large arrays. Measured results are presented for a small 4×4 array.

Multiparameter radar measurements of rainfall, namely, reflectivity factor Z/sub H/, differential reflectivity Z/sub DR/, and specific differential phase K/sub DP/ lie in a constrained three-dimensional (3D) space and therefore measurement of Z/sub H/, Z/sub DR/, or, K/sub DP/ should be consistent with the other two. This self-consistency relationship between Z/sub H/, Z/sub DR/, and K/sub DP/ is valid when the radar resolution volume is homogeneous. When there are reflectivity gradients within the radar resolution cell, the self-consistency relation is perturbed. This perturbation can be utilized to detect the presence of gradients in the radar resolution volume. This paper presents a technique to detect and estimate reflectivity gradients in the resolution cell. The technique is evaluated using theoretical analysis as well as experimental data collected by the NCAR CP-2 radar. It is demonstrated that the presence of reflectivity gradients larger than a few decibels can be detected using the algorithm developed in this paper.

The joint distribution characteristics of size and shape of raindrops directly translate into features of polarization diversity measurements in rainfall. Theoretical calculations as well as radar observations indicate that the three polarization diversity measurements, namely, reflectivity, differential reflectivity, and specific differential propagation phase, lie in a constrained space that can be approximated by a three-dimensional (3D) surface. This feature as well as the vertical-looking observation of raindrops are used to determine biases in calibration of the radar system. A simple procedure is developed to obtain the bias in the absolute calibration from polarization diversity observation in rainfall. Simulation study as well as data analysis indicate that calibration errors can be estimated to an accuracy of 1 dB.

We report on the detection of a loss-inducing perturbation with variable localization accuracy along a test fiber based on the analysis of transmitted and reflected powers of an unmodulated continuous-wave light source. The required accuracy of localization is provided by suitable distribution of the differential reflectivity along the fiber. The localization accuracy for a strong disturbance has been estimated as /spl plusmn/ 1.0 m along the 3.939-km single-mode test fiber and as /spl plusmn/ 5.0 mm along a designated 10-cm fiber part for both strong and weak perturbations.

A comparison between radar-derived rainfall rates and those obtained from a ground-based disdrometer located at the radar site is presented. The radar measurements were made in the vicinity of Chicago, IL, on August 2, 1978, with the CHILL radar of the Illinois State Water Survey. Three radar-derived profiles of rainfall rate versus distance from the radar were obtained for a single storm in the direction of the storm path toward the radar. These profiles indicated the storm motion and the variability of rainfall as the storm progressed toward the radar. The last two profiles support the hypothesis that the storm was in steady state as it passed over the radar site. This provided an opportunity to compare the radar-derived rates with an apparent rate versus distance profile derived from a disdrometer time record of rainfall rate obtained at the radar site. Excellent agreement between the radar and disdrometer measurements of rainfall resulted.

One of the Doppler radars operated by the National Severe Storms Laboratory can measure the difference between propagation phase constants K/sub Dp/ at horizontal and vertical polarization. This study examines the use of this parameter K/sub Dp/ in addition to the reflectivity factor Z/sub H/ and the differential reflectivity Z/sub DR/, to obtain information about rain and hail. It is shown from theory and experiments that a third parameter of the drop size distribution, obtained from K/sub DP/, can be used to support Z/sub DR/ measurement and/or to point out mixed-phase hydrometeors. Quantitative information on hail size distribution can be obtained for small hailstones when their major axes are nearly vertically aligned, giving rise to negative Z/sub DR/ and K/sub DP/ values. >

The statistical characteristics of three estimators of the differential reflectivity (ZDR) radar signal are examined theoretically and compared with pulse-to-pulse measurements of reflectivity at horizontal and vertical polarizations. The square-law and log-ratio estimators provide satisfactory means for measuring ZDR while the log-ratio estimator does not. In addition, the theory is consistent with radar data, clearly showing that ZDR could be measured accurately from a sequence of alternately polarized waves.

Results of the first measurements of differential reflectivity (ZDR) in rain are reported. ZDR = 10 log (ZH/ZV) dB involves copolar measurements of ZH and ZV, the radar reflectivity factors at horizontal and vertical polarizations, respectively. The data were obtained with the University of Chicago-Illinois State Water Survey (CHILL) radar facility in Oklahoma during Spring 1977 and confirmed theoretical expectations that ZDR should be positive, ranging between around 0-4 dB. By combining ZDR measurements with ZH, it is shown how estimates of N0 and D0, the parameters of an exponential raindrop size distribution, can be obtained. These estimates were subsequently used to compute rainfall rates as a function of range along a radar ray. These results illustrate that ZDR can have important applications in the quantitative, remote measurement of drop-size distributions and rainfall.