Doppler Weather Radar Research and Development
NSSL Special Project – Hail Size Discrimination Experiment (HaSDEx)
Funding Type: CIMMS Task II
Objectives
Use public observations of hail size to develop polarimetric radar-based
algorithms.
Accomplishments
Polarimetric radar easily discriminates between rain and hail, but development
of a hail-sizing algorithm for the KOUN radar requires more data than
are currently available. Using the same ideas that were so successful
in the Winter Hydrometeor Classification Ground Truth Experiment, the
public has been invited to submit hail size information within a 150-km
radius of the radar. In addition, hail size observations submitted
directly to the Norman NWS Forecast Office are used.
Hail is far less widespread in time and space than is winter weather, so that fewer reports are expected. To date, about 80 reports have been directly collected via the web entry page (http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/projects/hail07/). Not all reports submitted to the NWS meet minimal quality requirements, but we expect that that 80-100 more reports from there will be useful to this project.
This project is ongoing.
The HaSDEx web site.