Calibration of radar differential reflectivity  using quasi-vertical profiles

Sanchez-Rivas, Daniel; Rico-Ramirez, Miguel A.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-503-2022

Articles | Volume 15, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-503-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-503-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 2

Research article

|

31 Jan 2022

Research article |

| 31 Jan 2022

Calibration of radar differential reflectivity using quasi-vertical profiles

Daniel Sanchez-Rivas and Miguel A. Rico-Ramirez

Data sets

Chilbolton Facility for Atmospheric and Radio Research (CFARR) Disdrometer Data, Chilbolton Site Science and Technology Facilities Council, Chilbolton Facility for Atmospheric and Radio Research, Natural Environment Research Council, and C. Wrench https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/aac5f8246987ea43a68e3396b530d23e

Chenies C-band rain radar dual polar products Met Office https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/bb3c55e36b4a4dc8866f0a06be3d475b

Deanhill C-band rain radar dual polar products Met Office https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/5b22789f362c43f3b3d1c65bc30c30ee

The Disdrometer Verification Network (DiVeN): particle diameter and fall velocity measurements from a network of Thies Laser Precipitation Monitors around the UK (2017-2019) Natural Environment Research Council, Met Office, B. Pickering, R. Neely~III, and D. Harrison https://doi.org/10.5285/602f11d9a2034dae9d0a7356f9aeaf45

Short summary

In this work, we review the use of quasi-vertical profiles for monitoring the calibration of the radar differential reflectivity Z_DR. We validate the proposed method by comparing its results against the traditional approach based on measurements taken at 90°; we observed good agreement as the errors are within 0.2 dB. Additionally, we compare the results of the proposed method with Z_DR derived from disdrometers; the errors are reasonable considering factors discussed in the paper.