An overview of the remote sensing of precipitation with polarimetric radar

Abstract

Recent advances in radar remote sensing of precipitation include the development of polarimetric radar, which has the capability of transmitting in both the horizontal ( H) and vertical ( V) polarization states, thus providing additional information on the target precipitation particles. Radar polarimetry has not only been proven to improve data quality and precipitation estimation, but also improves characterization of precipitation particles; thus it has great potential in weather monitoring and forecasting. Realizing the potential of this state-of-the-art technology, meteorological departments across the world are upgrading their radar networks to polarimetric capabilities. Commensurate with this new era in precipitation remote sensing, this article provides an overview of polarimetric radar measurements, emphasizing the intrinsic signatures and their association to precipitation particle shapes, sizes and distributions. The potential research and applications of polarimetric radar signatures in meteorology are discussed. A considerable number of recent peer reviewed journal articles dealing with the topic are included in the bibliography.

Assessment of SCaMPR and NEXRAD Q2 Precipitation Estimates Using Oklahoma Mesonet Observations

“…Dual-polarization radar transmits energy in both the horizontal and vertical directions and provides more information about targeted hydrometeors than a single-polarization radar provides. Thorough overviews of dual polarization are already available in literature (Islam and Rico-Ramirez 2013), so only a brief summary of dual-polarization applications to the hybrid classification (Feng et al 2011) and Q2 estimates will be discussed in this study. While the Q2 algorithm utilizes only horizontal polarization, some incorporation of dual-polarization technology could aid in removing ground clutter contamination in radar precipitation estimates (Zrni c et al 2006).…”