Open AccessObservations of Convective Thermals with Weather Radar
Author(s) -
Valery Melnikov,
Dušan S. Zrnić
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of atmospheric and oceanic technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.774
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1520-0426
pISSN - 0739-0572
DOI - 10.1175/jtech-d-17-0068.1
Subject(s) - radar , convection , meteorology , weather radar , turbulence , dissipation , thermal , remote sensing , geology , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , physics , computer science , telecommunications , thermodynamics
It is shown that the NEXRAD weather radar with enhanced detectability is capable of observing the evolution of convective thermals. The fields of radar differential reflectivity show that the upper parts of the thermals are observable due to Bragg scatter, whereas scattering from insects dominates in the lower parts. The thermal-top rise rate is between 1.5 and 3.7 m s −1 in the analyzed case. Radar observations of thermals also enable estimations of their maximum heights, horizontal sizes, and the turbulent dissipation rate within each thermal. These attributes characterize the intensity of convection.