Identification

Title

Triple-frequency radar retrieval of microphysical properties of snow

Abstract

An algorithm based on triple-frequency (X, Ka, W) radar measurements that retrieves the size, water content and degree of riming of ice clouds is presented. This study exploits the potential of multi-frequency radar measurements to provide information on bulk snow density that should underpin better estimates of the snow characteristic size and content within the radar volume. The algorithm is based on Bayes' rule with riming parameterised by the "fill-in" model. The radar reflectivities are simulated with a range of scattering models corresponding to realistic snowflake shapes. The algorithm is tested on multi-frequency radar data collected during the ESA-funded Radar Snow Experiment For Future Precipitation Mission. During this campaign, in situ microphysical probes were mounted on the same aeroplane as the radars. This nearly perfectly co-located dataset of the remote and in situ measurements gives an opportunity to derive a combined multi-instrument estimate of snow microphysical properties that is used for a rigorous validation of the radar retrieval. Results suggest that the triple-frequency retrieval performs well in estimating ice water content (IWC) and mean mass-weighted diameters obtaining root-mean-square errors of 0.13 and 0.15, respectively, for log(10)IWC and log(10)D(m). The retrieval of the degree of riming is more challenging, and only the algorithm that uses Doppler information obtains results that are highly correlated with the in situ data.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d76w9fjx

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2021-11-17T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact