Abstract
Fourteen-month precipitation measurements from a second-generation PARSIVEL disdrometer deployed in Beijing, northern China, were analyzed to investigate the microphysical structure of raindrop size distribution and its implications on polarimetric radar applications. Rainfall types are classified and analyzed in the domain of median volume diameter D 0 and the normalized intercept parameter N w . The separation line between convective and stratiform rain is almost equivalent to rain rate at 8.6 mm h−1 and radar reflectivity at 36.8 dBZ. Convective rain in Beijing shows distinct seasonal variations in log 10 N w – D 0 domain. X-band dual-polarization variables are simulated using the T-matrix method to derive radar-based quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) estimators, and rainfall products at hourly scale are evaluated for four radar QPE estimators using collocated but independent rain gauge observations. This study also combines the advantages of individual estimators based on the thresholds on polarimetric variables. Results show that the blended QPE estimator has better performance than others. The rainfall microphysical analysis presented in this study is expected to facilitate the development of a high-resolution X-band radar network for urban QPE applications.
Highlights
Characteristics of raindrop size distribution (DSD) are of great importance in various disciplinary research
Understanding the DSD is critical for the microphysical parameterizations in numerical weather prediction models [2,3,4], and quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) using remote sensing technologies, such as radar and satellite [5,6]
The DSD can be affected by many factors [17], including microphysical processes, such as condensation, evaporation, collision–coalescence and breakup [18], updrafts and downdrafts [19], horizontal winds [20], orographic effects [21], and aerosol effects [22]
Summary
Characteristics of raindrop size distribution (DSD) are of great importance in various disciplinary research. They are the physical basis in the formation of clouds and precipitation [1]. The DSDs can be utilized to estimate the kinetic energy of rain [7], which is a key factor in assessing the degree of soil erosion [8] To this end, numerous studies have been conducted around the world to characterize the DSD in different climate regions and rainfall types, using a variety of in situ and remote sensing instruments [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16].
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