Characterization of the Pilot X-band radar responses to the HIWC environment during the Cayenne HAIC-HIWC 2015 Campaign

摘要

In this paper, pilot X-band weather radar response to the high ice water content (HIWC) environment is characterized and the radar performance in this environment is assessed. The pilot's radar outputs are mapped into the coordinate for the side-looking X-band research radar installed on the Canadian National Research Council's Convair-580 aircraft. A statistical relationship between the total ice water content (IWC) of the environment and the radar equivalent reflectivity factor (Z_e) is developed at W and X-band frequencies. It is shown that in regions with small ice crystal particles, IWC can be estimated from both W and X-band reflectivities, but care has to be taken to account for attenuation by W-band and also variability for particle size distribution (PSD) categories for X-band, where aggregates may result in the same response as in clouds with high concentrations of small particles. Similar to other IWC-Z_e studies, we find the IWC-Z_e relationship depends on temperature.