Disdrometer measurements during a unique rainfall event in central Illinois and their implication for differential reflectivity radar observationsUnderstanding of the natural variability of rainfall is essential in order to assess radar's ability to estimate rainfall characteristics such as rainfall rate, rainfall water content and drop size distribution parameters. The two most useful measurements of rainfall for this purpose derive from ground-based disdrometers and aircraft-borne drop size spectrometers. Accordingly, this paper examines a time series of disdrometer measurements obtained during a unique rainfall event which occurred in central Illinois on October 6, 1982. The measurements are used to predict the behavior of radar observables (reflectivity factor and differential reflectivity) for application to the estimation of rainfall parameters. The results support previous theoretical predictions (Seliga and Bringi, 1976) and experimental results (Seliga et al., 1979, 1981; Bringi et al., 1982; Hall et al., 1980; Goddard et al., 1982) based upon the differential reflectivity (ZDR) radar technique.
Document ID
19850046601
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Seliga, T. A. (Ohio State Univ. Columbus, OH, United States)
Aydin, K. (Ohio State Univ. Columbus, OH, United States)
Direskeneli, H. (Ohio State University Columbus, OH, United States)