Article

Differential Reflectivity Measurements in Rain: First Experiments

Atmospheric Sciences Program and the Department of Electrical Engineering, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210
Geoscience Electronics, IEEE Transactions on 11/1979; DOI:10.1109/TGE.1979.294652
Source: IEEE Xplore

ABSTRACT 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.

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Keywords

Chicago-Illinois State Water Survey
 
copolar measurements
 
drop-size distributions
 
estimates
 
exponential raindrop size distribution
 
first measurements
 
Oklahoma
 
quantitative
 
radar ray
 
radar reflectivity factors
 
rainfall
 
rainfall rates
 
vertical polarizations
 
ZDR
 
ZDR measurements
 
ZH/ZV
 
ZV
 

T. A. Seliga