An innovative approach for detection of, hydrometeor returns from the GU Portable Atmospheric Lidar profiles

Records of backscatter (bs) count and extinction coefficient ( /km) from Potable Atmospheric Lidar (PAL) of Gauhati University (26.15 0 N, 91.66 0 E) are analyzed in an attempt for detection of presence of hydrometeors through identification of type of clouds with special reference to precipitating and non-precipitating characters. For this purpose and bs profiles of aerosol and cloud are examined covering both dry and wet seasons from two years of Lidar data and a parameter called “Roll off Rate (RoR)” from profiles are used as a pointer on presence of hydrometeors in the environment. The paper also presents the application of RoR in estimation of rain rate. The reliability of the approach is examined by comparing the results obtained from the adopted approach with the rain data obtained from rain-gauge and satellite.