Potential Utilization of Specific Attenuation for Rainfall Estimation, Mitigation of Partial Beam Blockage, and Radar Networking

Abstract

Abstract The potential utilization of specific attenuation A for rainfall estimation, mitigation of partial beam blockage, and radar networking is investigated. The R(A) relation is less susceptible to the variability of drop size distributions than traditional rainfall algorithms based on radar reflectivity Z, differential reflectivity ZDR, and specific differential phase KDP in a wide range of rain intensity. Specific attenuation is estimated from the radial profile of the measured Z and the total span of the differential phase using the ZPHI method. Since the estimated A is immune to reflectivity biases caused by radar miscalibration, attenuation, partial beam blockage, and wet radomes, rain retrieval from R(A) is also immune to the listed factors. The R(A) method was tested at X band using data collected by closely located radars in Germany and at S band for polarimetrically upgraded Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) radars in the United States. It is demonstrated that the two adjacent X-band radars—one of which is miscalibrated and another which is affected by partial beam blockage—produce almost indistinguishable fields of rain rate. It is also shown that the R(A) method yields robust estimates of rain rates and rain totals at S band, where specific attenuation is vanishingly small. The X- and S-band estimates of rainfall obtained from R(A) are in good agreement with gauges.