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Considerations for spaceborne 94 GHz radar observations of precipitation
Author(s) -
Kollias Pavlos,
Szyrmer Wanda,
Zawadzki Isztar,
Joe Paul
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2007gl031536
Subject(s) - radar , snow , precipitation , remote sensing , environmental science , sampling (signal processing) , doppler radar , global precipitation measurement , rain and snow mixed , attenuation , meteorology , geology , computer science , optics , physics , telecommunications , detector
Spaceborne 94 GHz radars offer sufficient sensitivity to observe all types of precipitation and their associated clouds without stretching the instrument requirements. In this study, considerations for precipitation classification and detection from space using 94 GHz radars are presented. First, a technique that uses the path‐integrated attenuation normalized to the depth of the rain layer, the snow‐integrated reflectivity and the reflectivity difference from snow to rain to discriminate convective and stratiform profiles is proposed. Second, we present a critical view of sampling issues for precipitation and Doppler measurements from space at 94 GHz. A new sampling strategy for spaceborne 94 GHz radars with alternating cloud and precipitation modes is discussed that can improve our ability to detect and measure precipitation without losing sight of the main objective of deploying such high frequency radars in space, to map the global distribution of clouds.