Rainfall Profiling Using Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Vertically Pointing 8-mm Wavelength Radars

An attenuation-based method to retrieve vertical profiles of rainfall rate from vertically pointing Ka-band radar measurements has been refined and adjusted for use with the U.S. Department of Energy’s cloud radars deployed at multiple Atmospheric Radiation Program (ARM) test bed sites. This method takes advantage of the linear relationship between the rainfall rate and the attenuation coefficient, and can account for a priori information about the vertical profile of nonattenuated reflectivity. The retrieval method is applied to a wide variety of rainfall events observed at different ARM sites ranging from stratiform events with low-to-moderate rainfall rates (∼5 mm h−1) to heavy convective rains with rainfall rates approaching 100 mm h−1. The Ka-band attenuation-based retrieval results expressed in both instantaneous rainfall rates and in rainfall accumulations are compared to available surface data and measurements of a scanning C-band precipitation polarimetric radar located near the Darwin, Australia, ARM test bed site. The Ka-band retrievals are found to be in good agreement with the C-band radar estimates, which are based both on conventional radar reflectivity approaches and on polarimetric differential phase shift measurements. Typically, the C-band–Ka-band radar estimate differences are within the expected retrieval uncertainties. The magnitude of the Ka-band rainfall-rate estimate error depends on the retrieval resolution, rain intensity, and uncertainties in the profiles of nonattenuated reflectivity. It is shown that reasonable retrieval accuracies (∼15%–40%) can be achieved for a large dynamic range of observed rainfall rates (4–100 mm h−1) and the effective vertical resolution of about 1 km. The potential enhancements of the Ka-band attenuation-based method by including a priori information on vertical profiles of nonattenuated reflectivity and increasing the height range of the retrievals by using Ka-band polarization measurements are also discussed. The addition of the precipitation products to the suite of ARM hydrometeor retrievals can enhance the overall characterization of the vertical atmospheric column.