Vertical wind and drop size distribution retrieval with the CloudCube G-band Doppler radar

Yurk, Nitika Yadlapalli; Lebsock, Matt D.; Socuellamos, Juan M.; Rodriguez Monje, Raquel; Cooper, Ken B.; Kollias, Pavlos

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5141-2025

Articles | Volume 18, issue 19

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5141-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5141-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 19

Research article

|

07 Oct 2025

Research article |

| 07 Oct 2025

Vertical wind and drop size distribution retrieval with the CloudCube G-band Doppler radar

Nitika Yadlapalli Yurk, Matt D. Lebsock, Juan M. Socuellamos, Raquel Rodriguez Monje, Ken B. Cooper, and Pavlos Kollias

Data sets

Ka, W and G-band radar observations of clouds and light precipitation during the EPCAPE campaign in March and April 2023 Socuellamos et al. (2025b) https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11043877

Ka ARM Zenith Radar (KAZRCFRGE), 2023-02-15 to 2024-02-15, ARM Mobile Facility (EPC) Lindenmaier et al. https://doi.org/10.5439/1498936

Video Disdrometer (VDIS), 2023-02-15 to 2024-02-13 Zhu and Wang https://doi.org/10.5439/1992988

Ceilometer (CEIL), 2023-02-15 to 2024-02-14 Zhang et al. https://doi.org/10.5439/1181954

Balloon-Borne Sounding System (SONDEWNPN), 2023-02-15 to 2024-02-14 Keeler et al. https://doi.org/10.5439/1595321

Short summary

Current knowledge of the link between clouds and climate is limited by a lack of observations of the drop size distribution (DSD) within clouds, especially for the smallest drops. We demonstrate a method of retrieving DSDs down to small drop sizes using observations of drizzling marine layer clouds captured by the CloudCube millimeter-wave Doppler radar. We compare the shape of the observed spectra to theoretical expectations of radar echoes to solve for DSDs at each time step and elevation.