Current status and future challenges of weather radar polarimetry: Bridging the gap between radar meteorology/hydrology/engineering and Numerical Weather Prediction

After decades of research and development, the WSR-88D (NEXRAD) network in the United States was upgraded with dual-polarization capability, providing polarimetric radar data (PRD) that have the potential to improve weather observations, quantification, forecasting, and warnings. The weather radar networks in China and other countries are also being upgraded with dual-polarization capability. Now, with radar polarimetry technology having matured, and PRD available both nationally and globally, it is important to understand the current status and future challenges and opportunities. The potential impact of PRD has been limited by their oftentimes subjective and empirical use. More importantly, the community has not begun to regularly derive from PRD the state parameters, such as water mixing ratios and number concentrations, used in numerical weather prediction (NWP) models.

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Author Zhang, G.
Mahale, V. N.
Putnam, B. J.
Qi, Y.
Cao, Q.
Byrd, A. D.
Bukovcic, P.
Zrnic, D. S.
Gao, J.
Xue, M.
Jung, Y.
Reeves, H. D.
Heinselman, P. L.
Ryzhkov, A.
Palmer, R. D.
Zhang, P.
Weber, M.
McFarquhar, G. M.
Moore, B.
Zhang, Y.
Zhang, J.
Vivekanandan, Jothiram
Al-Rashid, Y.
Ice, R. L.
Berkowitz, D. S.
Tong, C.
Fulton, C.
Doviak, R. J.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2019-06-01T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
Progress N/A
Metadata Date 2025-07-11T19:28:37.986544
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:22466
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Zhang, G., Mahale, V. N., Putnam, B. J., Qi, Y., Cao, Q., Byrd, A. D., Bukovcic, P., Zrnic, D. S., Gao, J., Xue, M., Jung, Y., Reeves, H. D., Heinselman, P. L., Ryzhkov, A., Palmer, R. D., Zhang, P., Weber, M., McFarquhar, G. M., Moore, B., Zhang, Y., Zhang, J., Vivekanandan, Jothiram, Al-Rashid, Y., Ice, R. L., Berkowitz, D. S., Tong, C., Fulton, C., Doviak, R. J.. (2019). Current status and future challenges of weather radar polarimetry: Bridging the gap between radar meteorology/hydrology/engineering and Numerical Weather Prediction. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d77084g8. Accessed 22 August 2025.

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