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The Dual Wavelength Ratio knee: a signature of multiple scattering in airborne K u - K a observations. Alessandro Battaglia , Simone Tanelli , Gerry Heymsfield and Lin Tian. Paper now out in J. Appl. Meteorol . Climatol ., early on line release. Focus and motivation.
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The Dual Wavelength Ratio knee: a signature of multiple scattering in airborne Ku-Ka observations Alessandro Battaglia, Simone Tanelli, Gerry Heymsfield and Lin Tian Paper now out in J. Appl. Meteorol. Climatol., early on line release
Focus and motivation • Convective towers heavy precipitation events • CloudSat and TRMM providing single frequency observations of convective towers. GPM-DPR: first dual wavelength observations from space. • CloudSat observations certainly affected by multiple scattering. For TRMM hints that rain rates were underestimated in deep convection (maximum not occurring under the convective core, Liu Chuntao) TRMM Ku-band CloudSat W-band
GPM proxy: NASA-HIWRAP Ku-Ka MC3E observations Region of strong attenuation Very likely presence of hail (ground reports+ Ground-based S-pol radars) Heymsfield et al., 2013: Airborne Radar Observations of Severe Hail Storms: Implications for Future SpaceborneRadar, J. Appl. Meteorol. Climatol.
Vertical reflectivity profiles in sector II S-band Z above 60 dBZ only in the last 4 km High-density ice layer 3dB/km Ku Ka i Inflexion point Anomalous sloping DWR knee 0.5dB/km 1.6dB/km one way Absence of surface return peak
The Dual Wavelength Ratio knee This feature was observed during MC3E in several convective cells >10 dB >12 dB In a single scattering world …..
Single scattering explanation?DWR sources from hail/graupel/rain Differential attenuation Mie effects ways how to decrease DWR Only hail particles in this range of size But almost monodisperse can produce a decrease in DWR. Rain and wet hail cannot!! However quite hard to produce a 12 dB effect! Vertical microphysical processes not supported by S-band observations. Even if DWR can be explained there is no explanation of the disappearance of the surface with realistic s0 values
The multiple scattering explanation Dense ice layer high SS albedo Anomalous sloping and surface peak disappearing have been already documented for CloudSat, but quite astonishing to see this features in Ku-Ka airborne observations. Ka is expected to be more heavily affected by multiple scattering than Ku.
Simulation framework: single ice layer Two features must be carefully treated: Antenna pattern Size of the convective cell
Pulse stretching effect generated by an hail layer DWR profile Pulse stretching Ku profile The MS strength is a strong function of the horizontal extent of the system lateral diffusion allows radiation to re-enter the small footprint (whose 3 dB radius is of the order of 500 and 200 m for HIWRAP at 10 km distance for Kuand Ka, respectively) after being scattered away from it.
Profile with hail explaining sector II HIWRAP+S-band observations Ku profile Heuristic top-bottom approach Ka profile Grey-shaded envelopes=observed HIWRAP profiles within 1, 3, 5 km from the cluster center The radar Is loosing its ranging capabilities DWR profile Radiation height
GPM configuration SS attenuated SS effective 3km 10km • Maximum in DWR strongly suppressed • Appearance of a knee • Even negative DWR possible! 5km MDT MDT
Conclusions AKa-KuDualWavelengthRatio knee was frequently observed during MC3E. This signature is straightforwardly explained with the help of multiple scattering theory in presence of hail-bearing highly-diffusive convective cores with large horizontal extents Ka pulse stretching typically exceeding that occurring in the Kuchannel anomalous sloping knee, visible thanks to the profile large attenuation and to the good HIWRAP sensitivity (10 and 0 dBZ at 20 km for Kuand Ka, respectively). Multiple scattering effects are likely to be more pronounced in the upcoming space-borne GPM-DPR observations. Our forecast: DWR knees will be observed by the GPM radar when overflying high-density ice shafts embedded in large convective systems their explanation must not be sought in differential attenuation or differential Mie but via multiple scattering but interplay witn non uniform beam filling still under study. With real GPM-DPR data, we will be able to confirm or refute our conjecture.