Comparison of Disdrometer and X-Band mobile radar observations in convective precipitation

Microphysical data from thunderstorms are sparse, yet they are essential to validate microphysical schemes in numerical models. Mobile, dual-polarization, X-band radars are capable of providing a wealth of data that include radar reflectivity, drop shape, and hydrometeor type. However, X-band radars suffer from beam attenuation in heavy rainfall and hail, which can be partially corrected with attenuation correction schemes. In this research, the authors compare surface disdrometer observations to results from a differential phase-based attenuation correction scheme. This scheme is applied to data recorded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) X-band dual-polarized (NOXP) mobile radar, which was deployed during the second Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment (VORTEX2). Results are presented from five supercell thunderstorms and one squall line (183 min of data). The median disagreement (radar–disdrometer) in attenuation-corrected reflectivity Z and differential reflectivity ZDR is just 1.0 and 0.19 dB, respectively. However, two data subsets reveal much larger discrepancies in Z (ZDR): 5.8 (1.6) dB in a hailstorm and −13 (−0.61) dB when the radar signal quality index (SQI) is less than 0.8. The discrepancies are much smaller when disdrometer and S-band Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) Z are compared, with differences of −1.5 dB (hailstorm) and −0.66 dB (NOXP SQI < 0.8). A comparison of the hydrometeor type retrieved from disdrometer and NOXP radar data is also presented, in which the same class is assigned 63% of the time.