A high‐resolution radar experiment on the island of Jersey

Abstract

Abstract A very high‐resolution X‐band vertically pointing weather radar was deployed in the island of Jersey, UK, from February to May 2004, to study the variation of the vertical reflectivity of precipitation (VPR) in this region. Intercomparison studies were carried out with a C‐band scanning weather radar operated by Jersey Met. Department. C‐band radar rainfall estimations and raingauge measurements were well correlated at very short ranges (<10 km), but there are clear difficulties in the estimation of precipitation due to ground clutter, and anomalous propagation echoes as well as the variation of VPR. Average VPRs were obtained from the X‐band radar that helped reduce the bright band enhancement in C‐band scanning weather radar measurements. This paper presents the overall results obtained during this radar experiment. The experiment was one of a series designed to understand the VPR and design removal algorithms for bright band contamination of quantitative radar measurements of precipitation. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society