Scattering properties of hydrometeors as measured by dual-polarization Doppler radar during CCOPE

摘要

An 8.6-mm-wavelength, dual-polarization Doppler radar was operated by the Wave Propagation Laboratory during the Cooperative Convective Precipitation Experiment. The complex cross correlation between the two received polarization channels (left- and right-handed circular) provided information about the degree of common alignment and the scattering properties of the observed hydrometeors. The data show four distinct layers in a lightly precipitating stratiform cloud. These are (1) a subcloud layer consisting of raindrops and some non-Rayleigh-scattering graupel particles, (2) a narrow “depolarization band” containing highly non-Rayleigh particles that are ice and ice-water mixtures, (3) a main cloud region consisting of small ice particles, and (4) a cloud top region consisting of substantially larger particles than were found in the main cloud.