Abstract: In the San Francisco Bay Area, precipitation occurs in the wintertime, mostly as rain. Wintertime rainfall can be further classified into cold or stratiform rain with a typical radar bright band signature and orographic rain with the absence of a radar bright band. Vertical Pointing S-Band profiler radar and disdrometer measurements from two of NOAA’s Hydrometeorology Testbed (HMT) sites in California are used to study the differences in microphysical properties between these two types of rain and their impact on radar rainfall estimation. A methodology has been developed to discriminate non-bright band (NBB) rainfall from bright band (BB) rainfall using reflectivity (Z) and differential reflectivity (ZDR) computed from disdrometer data. Delineating the two rainfall types in this way allowed for an algorithm to be applied to the radar scans to identify rainfall types and apply appropriate reflectivity (Z) based and specific differential phase (KDP) based rainfall estimators. Recently, a gap-filling X-Band weather radar with dual-polarization capabilities was deployed in the San Francisco Bay Area in Santa Rosa to aid in weather monitoring and provide high-resolution Quantitative Precipitation Estimation (QPE) products. When applied to real radar observations, this method shows great potential for improving the QPE compared to traditional operational products which more often tend to underestimate rainfall in the California coastal region.

Adviser: Prof. V. Chandrasekar
Co-Adviser: NA
Non-ECE Member: Prof. Susan James, MECH
Member 3: Prof. Margaret Cheney, ECE
Addional Members: Prof. Indrakshi Ray, ECE

Publications:
Please contact the student for details.

Program of Study:
ECE 581A6
ECE 580B4
ECE 742
ECE 795
ECE 799
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