HR: 1330h
AN: H23A-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Evaluation of Rainfall Estimates from Polarimetrically Tuned Z-R Relations and Vertical Profile of Reflectivity Corrections
AU: * Frank, P J
EM: paul.frank@und.edu
AF: University of North Dakota, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Box 9003, Grand Forks, ND 58202
AU: Kucera, P A
EM: pkucera@aero.und.edu
AF: University of North Dakota, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Box 9003, Grand Forks, ND 58202
AB: Estimating surface rainfall from volume scan radar data continues to be an important and challenging research problem in radar meteorology. Many studies have indicated that rainfall estimates can be improved by incorporating vertical profile of reflectivity (VPR) corrections. Another highly-potential improvement in radar rainfall estimation has come from the emergence and subsequent application of dual-polarized scanning radar to operational use, utilizing polarimetrically-tuned radar reflectivity to rainfall (Z-R) relationships. While both solutions are different in application, each promises (in theory) to yield better estimates of precipitation over the entire radar sampling area than traditional reflectivity-only radar rainfall estimation techniques. It is the goal of this study to evaluate and characterize the performance of each of these methods by comparing to gauge-bias corrected rainfall amounts derived from standard reflectivity measurements. Volume scan radar data collected over 27 days in July 2002 from the NASA S-Band polarimetric Doppler Radar (NPOL) in Southwestern Florida provides an excellent dataset for this study.
DE: 1854 Precipitation (3354)
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
DE: 3394 Instruments and techniques
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly