Evaluation of EarthCARE Cloud Profiling Radar Doppler Velocity Measurements in Particle Sedimentation Regimes

Abstract

Abstract The joint European Space Agency–Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ESA–JAXA) Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) mission is scheduled for launch in 2016 and features the first atmospheric Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) with Doppler capability in space. Here, the uncertainty of the CPR Doppler velocity measurements in cirrus clouds and large-scale precipitation areas is discussed. These regimes are characterized by weak vertical motion and relatively horizontally homogeneous conditions and thus represent optimum conditions for acquiring high-quality CPR Doppler measurements. A large dataset of radar reflectivity observations from ground-based radars is used to examine the homogeneity of the cloud fields at the horizontal scales of interest. In addition, a CPR instrument model that uses as input ground-based radar observations and outputs simulations of CPR Doppler measurements is described. The simulator accurately accounts for the beam geometry, nonuniform beam-filling, and signal integration effects, and it is applied to representative cases of cirrus cloud and stratiform precipitation. The simulated CPR Doppler velocities are compared against those derived from the ground-based radars. The unfolding of the CPR Doppler velocity is achieved using simple conditional rules and a smoothness requirement for the CPR Doppler measurements. The application of nonuniform beam-filling Doppler velocity bias-correction algorithms is found necessary even under these optimum conditions to reduce the CPR Doppler biases. Finally, the analysis indicates that a minimum along-track integration of 5000 m is needed to reduce the uncertainty in the CPR Doppler measurements to below 0.5 m s−1 and thus enable the detection of the melting layer and the characterization of the rain- and ice-layer Doppler velocities.