Dimension statistics of rain cell cores and associated rain rate isopleths derived from radar measurements in the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States

Employing a multi-year radar database of precipitation in a mid-Atlantic coast region, the authors have characterized rain cell size statistics. The measurements were made with a high resolution, high power radar in which equicircle diameter contours of resolutions of 1 km and greater were identified out to ranges of 100 km from the radar. The rain cell was constructed by its core intensity isopleth and a family of enveloping contours having defined rain rate intervals in the regions between them. The isopleth statistics were extracted from a culled database whose cores had intensities of RLN = 7 (18-24 mm/h) and greater. This implies a bias of the statistics toward various types of convective rains generally associated with thunderstorms in the mid-Atlantic coast. Since the radar measurements were made in the mid-Atlantic coast region, the isopleth statistics may not be directly applicable to other geographic regions (such as the tropics).