Abstract
The present study utilizes nine years of measurements taken from a Joss–Waldvogel disdrometer (JWD). From this dataset, thirty six rainfall events, were selected and categorized, respectively, in convective and stratiform types, according to specific criteria. Six statistical distributions namely the one- and two-parameter exponential, the two- and three-parameter lognormal and finally the two- and three-parameter gamma were fitted on the observed drop size distributions (DSDs). The goodness-of-fit between each statistical and the observed distribution was determined based on the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test. The results show that 72% of the stratiform events are best described by the three-parameter lognormal distribution while 28% are best described by the three-parameter gamma distribution. In the case of convective events, the results are more diversified; the two- and three-parameter gamma distribution fits best in 39% and 17% of the events, respectively, while the two- and three-parameter lognormal distribution fits best in 6% and 39% of the events. The one- and two-parameter exponential distribution was not the best fit in any case. Moreover, initial steps have already been taken in order for these findings to be used for calibration purposes of a recently employed X-band rainscanner in the Attica region in Greece.
Highlights
The study of rainfall drop size distribution (DSD) is very useful in a wide spectrum of scientific applications like radar meteorology, microwave communication, satellite remote sensing, soil erosion and cloud physics
Thirty six rainfall events have been selected from a Joss–Waldvogel disdrometer (JWD) database covering the period (2005–2014)
Their respective DSDs have been studied for depicting the best fit among six statistical distributions
Summary
The study of rainfall drop size distribution (DSD) is very useful in a wide spectrum of scientific applications like radar meteorology, microwave communication, satellite remote sensing, soil erosion and cloud physics. Accurate measurements of drop size distributions are important for many meteorological applications, including the estimation of rainfall with the use of radar reflectivity measurements, cloud radiative transfer studies and cloud model initialization and verification. Scientific progress has led to the development of two main types of ground-based disdrometers, for the direct measurement of DSDs; the impact and the optical one. Several designs of optical disdrometers exist, such as a two-dimensional video disdrometer (2DVD) for in situ measurements of precipitation and drop size distribution [2,3]
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