Hydrometeor profile characterization and drop size distribution retrieval algorithms for global precipitation measurement mission

摘要

The dual-frequency precipitation radar (DPR) on board GPM core satellite collects Ku and Ka band vertical profiles which allow us to investigate the microphysics using the difference between two frequency observations (measured dual frequency ratio or DFRm). DFRm has been shown in the literature to be rich in information and can be used to perform melting layer detection and estimate drop size distribution (DSD) parameters. This paper summarizes the candidate algorithms to perform melting layer detection and DSD retrieval for GPM-DPR. Hurricane Earl observations collected by airborne precipitation radar were used to demonstrate the application.