Doppler Weather Radar Research and Development
NSSL Project 5 – Investigation of the Use of Dual-Polarization Radar to Improve Quantitative Precipitation Estimation for Improving Flash Flood and Flood Detection, Warnings, and Forecasts:
Development of Kessler Farm Field Laboratory for the Study of Precipitation Microphysics
Funding Type: CIMMS Task II
Objectives
Develop an instrumented site that can be used for the detailed investigation
of precipitation microphysics.
Accomplishments
Understanding the microphysics of precipitation and the atmosphere in
which it forms and evolves is important for scientists to accurately
estimate rainfall rates and improve parameterizations in models that
predict the weather. Therefore, the University of Oklahoma, in collaboration
with CIMMS scientists at the NSSL, is building up a suite of instrumentation
to measure the properties of precipitation. This site, which is located
approximately 30 km south of the polarimetric KOUN WSR-88D radar, is
referred to as the Kessler Farm Field Laboratory (KFFL). Instrumentation
already deployed to the site include a 404 MHz profiler (part of the
NOAA profiler network), a 915 MHz profiler, a 2D-video disdrometer,
and a network of tipping bucket rain gages. KFFL is also host to one
of the stations in the Oklahoma Mesonet and a Department of Energy
(DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program boundary facility.
The overall goal of this research is to improve our understanding of the microphysics of precipitation formation in the Southern Great Plains. This is primarily being accomplished through the collection of vertical cross sections of polarimetric radar data over the KFFL site which, when combined with spectral data from the 404 and 915 MHz profilers, can be used to investigate the accuracy of polarimetric retrieval methods in a variety of precipitation regimes.
This project is ongoing.
Publications
Cao, Q., G. Zhang, E. Brandes, T. Schuur, A. Ryzhkov, and
K. Ikeda, 2007: Analysis of video disdrometer and polarimetric radar data
to characterize rain microphysics in Oklahoma. J. Appl.
Meteor., submitted.
Cao, Q., G. Zhang, T. Schuur, A. Ryzhkov, E. Brandes, and K. Ikeda, 2006: Characterization of rain microphysics and polarimetric signatures based on disdrometer and radar observations, Proc. IGARSS 2006, Denver, CO, CD-ROM 02_11A05.
Chilson, P. B., R. D. Palmer, M. Teshiba, A. Ryzhkov, and T. Schuur, 2006: Combined observations of precipitation using wind profilers and polarimetric weather radars, Preprints, 7th International Symposium on Tropospheric Profiling: Needs and Technologies, Boulder, CO, 6.1-O.
Chilson P. B., G. Zhang, T. Schuur, A. Ryzhkov, L. Kanofsky, Q. Cao, and M. Van Every, 2007: Precipitation measurements in Oklahoma using in-situ and remote sensing instrumentation, Proc., ARM Science Team Meeting.
Time-height cross-sections of radar reflectivity, differential reflectivity, and correlation coefficient over KFFL observed with the KOUN radar.