Abstract:
The polarimetric radar is a useful remote sensing tool for the study of hydrometeor classification and rainfall measurement which is sensitive to the types, shapes, and size distribution of rain drops. Xband radars have additional advantages that make them a convenient tool and an appropriate choice for some practical applications. They are well suited to uses where transportability and finescale observations are important, such as in hydrometeorological studies across moderately sized complex terrain watersheds and urban basins. Anhui SunCreate Electronics Limited Company has developed a stateofthescience Xband polarimetric doppler radar on wheel based on the alternative transmission and simultaneous receiving of horizontal and vertical polarization wavelength technology in 2005, termed XPDRW. It provides such measurements as the radar reflectivity ZH, velocity (V), spectrum width (W), differential reflectivity ZDR, propagation differential phase shift ΦDP, specific differential phase shift KDP, correlation coefficient ρhv(0), and linear depolarization LDR , which are useful for the research of cloud and precipitation physics as well as the mechanism and development of disastrous weathers. This paper report: 1) the technical status and data processing system; 2) the data quality and its detection ability of XPDRW; and 3) the ability of rainfall measurement and hydrometeor classification of XPDRW. Applications are put on data collected during a series of experiments which were conducted from spring of 2006 until summer 2008.
The results show that: 1) XPDRW is an actual multiparameter radar, which will provide a new kind of equipment for the development and application of polarization radar
in China; 2) the features of radar observations after corrected are similar to those from foreign polarimetric radars, indicating that the XPDRW observations are reasonable and suitable for future study; 3) rainfall measurement algorithm based on XPDRW data can overestimate the heavy rain versus the traditional ZR relations, which has an advantage in practical operation; (4) fuzzy logic method based on XPDRW data can be used in hydrometeor classification, and the results are basically reasonable based on case studies. It can reveal the development course of weather system, and classify hydrometeor types, but still need to be further studied.