Uncertainties in radar echo top heights used for hail detection

Meteorological Applications

Volumn 13, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 361-374

  Delobbe, Laurent ^a   Holleman, Iwan ^b  

^a ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF BELGIUM   (Belgium)

^b ROYAL NETHERLANDS METEOROLOGICAL INSTITUTE KNMI   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

Echo top; Hail; Reflectivity; Sampling errors; Storm; Uncertainties; Weather radar

Indexed keywords

ERRORS; METEOROLOGICAL RADAR; PRECIPITATION (METEOROLOGY); REFLECTION; STORMS;

ECHO TOP; RADAR REFLECTIVITIES; REFLECTIVITY DATA; REFLECTIVITY MEASUREMENTS; SAMPLING ERRORS; UNCERTAINTIES; VERTICAL PROFILE; VOLUME COVERAGE PATTERNS;

RADAR MEASUREMENT;

ECHO SOUNDING; ERROR ANALYSIS; FREQUENCY ANALYSIS; HAIL; RADAR ALTIMETRY; RAINSTORM; THUNDERSTORM; UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS;

EID: 33845948128     PISSN: 13504827     EISSN: 14698080     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S1350482706002374     Document Type: Article

References (35)

1. Amburn, S. A. & Wolf, P. L. (1997) VIL density as a hail indicator. Wea. Forecasting 12: 473-478.
2. Auer, A. H. Jr (1972) Distribution of graupel and hail with size. Mon. Wea. Rev. 100: 325-328.
3. Auer, A. H. Jr (1994) Hail recognition through the combined use of radar reflectivity and cloud-top temperatures. Mon. Wea. Rev. 122:2218-2221.
4. Bech, J., Codina, B., Lorente, J. & Bebbington, D. (2003) The sensitivity of single polarization weather radar beam blockage correction to variability in the vertical refractivity gradient. J. Atmos. Oceanic. Technol. 20: 845-855.
5. Collier, C. G. (1996) Applications of Weather Radar Systems. Chichester: Wiley, 390 pp.
6. Delobbe, L. & Holleman, I. (2003) Radar-based hail detection: Impact of height assignment errors on the measured vertical profiles of reflectivity. In Preprints 31st Conference on Radar Meteorology, Seattle, WA, Am. Meteorol. Soc. 475-478.
7. Delobbe, L. & Holleman, I. (2004) Quality of echotop products and derived probability of hail as a function of range. In Proceedings of European Conference on Radar in Meteorology and Hydrology (ERAD), Gotland, Sweden: Copernicus GmbH, 87-90.
8. Delobbe, L., Holleman, I., Dehenauw, D. & Neméghaire, J. (2005) Verification of radar-based hail detection product. In Preprints W.W.R.P. Symposium on Nowcasting and Very Short Range Forecasting (WSN05), Toulouse, France, P8.07.
9. Doviak, R. J. & Zrnic, D. S. (1993) Doppler Radar and Weather Observations, 2nd edn, San Diego: Academic Press, 562 pp.
10. Fraile, R., Castro, A., Sánchez, J. L., Marcos, J. L. & López, L. (2001) Noteworthy C-band radar parameters of storms on hail days in northwestern Spain. Atmos. Res. 59/60: 41-61.
11. Gourley, J. J., Kaney, B. & Maddox, R.A. (2003) Evaluating the calibration of radars: A software approach. In Preprints 31st Conference on Radar Meteorology, Seattle, WA, Am. Meteorol. Soc., 459-462.
12. Greene, D. R. & Clark, R. A. (1972) Vertically integrated liquid water - a new analysis tool. Mon. Wea. Rev. 100: 548-552.
13. Hardaker, P. J. & Auer, A. H. (1994) The separation of rain and hail using single polarization radar echoes and IR cloud-top temperatures. Meteorol. Appl. 1: 201-204.
14. Holleman, I. (2001) Hail detection using single-polarization radar. Scientific report WR-2001-01, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), De Bilt, The Netherlands, 74 pp.
15. Holleman, I., Wessels, H. R. A, Onvlee, J. R. A. & Barlag, S. J. M. (2000) Development of a hail-detection-product. Phys. Chem. Earth B 25: 1293-1297.
16. Howard, K. W., Gourley, J. J. & Maddox, R. A. (1997) Uncertainties in WSR-88D measurements and their impacts on monitoring life cycles. Wea. Forecasting 12: 166-174.
17. Huuskonen, A. J. (2001) A method for monitoring the calibration and pointing accuracy of a radar network. In Preprints 30th Conference on Radar Meteorology, Munich, Germany, Am. Meteorol. Soc., 29-31.
18. Joe, P., Burgess, D., Potts, R., Keenan, T., Stumpf, G. & Treloar, A. (2004) The S2K severe weather detection algorithms and their performance. Wea. Forecasting 19: 43-63.
19. Johnson, J. T., MacKeen, P. L., Witt, A., Mitchell, E. D., Stumpf, G. J., Eilts, M. D. & Thomas, K. W. (1998) The Storm Cell Identification and Tracking (SCIT) algorithm: An enhanced WSR-88D algorithm. Wea. Forecasting 13: 263-276.
20. Kessinger, C. J., Brandes, E. A. & Smith, J. W. (1995) A comparison of the NEXRAD and NSSL hail detection algorithms. In Preprints 27th Conference on Radar Meteorology, Vail, CO, Am. Meteorol. Soc., 603-605.
21. Lemon, L. R. (1998) The radar 'three body scatter pike': An operational large-hail signature. Wea. Forecasting 13: 327-340.
22. Lenning, E., Fuelberg, H. E. & Watson, A. I. (1998) An evaluation of WSR-88D severe hail algorithms along the northeastern Gulf Coast. Wea. Forecasting 13: 1029-1044.
23. Lynn, R. J. & Lakshmanan, V. (2002) Virtual radar volumes: Creation, algorithm access, and visualization. In Preprints 21st Conf. on Severe Local Storm, San Antonio, TX, Am. Meteorol. Soc., pp. 229-232.
24. Maddox, R. A., Zaras, D. S., MacKeen, P. L., Gourley, J. J., Rabin, R. & Howard, K. W. (1999) Echo height measurements with the WRS-88D: Use of data from one versus two radars. Wea. Forecasting 14: 455-460.
25. Marzban, C. & Witt, A. (2001) A Bayesian neural network for severe-hail size prediction. Wea. Forecasting 16: 600-610.
26. Mason, B. J. (1971) The Physics of Clouds. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 670 pp.
27. Nanni, S., Mezzasalma, P. & Alberoni, P. P. (2000) Detection of hail by means of polarimetric radar data and hailpads: Results from four storms. Meteorol. Appl. 7: 121-128.
28. Scarchilli, G., Gorgucci, E., Chandrasekar, V. & Seliga, T. A. (1993) Rainfall estimation using polarimetric techniques at C-band frequencies. J. Appl. Meteorol. 32: 1150-1159.
29. Stumpf, G. J., Smith, T. M. & Thomas, C. (2003) The National Severe Storms Laboratory's contribution to severe weather warning improvement: multiple-sensor severe weather applications. Atmos. Res. 67/68: 657-669.
30. Stumpf, G. J., Smith, T. M. & Hocker, J. (2004) New hail diagnostic parameters derived by integrating multiple radars and multiple sensors. In Preprints 22nd Conf. on Severe Local Storm, Hyannis, MA, Am. Meteorol. Soc., P7.8.
31. Tabary, P. (2003) Efforts to improve the monitoring of the French radar network. In Preprints 31st Conference on Radar Meteorology, Seattle, WA, Am. Meteorol. Soc., 482-485.
32. Treloar, A. (1998) Vertically integrated radar reflectivity as an indicator of hail size in the greater Sydney region of Australia. In Preprints 19th Conference on Severe Local Storms, Minneapolis, MN, Am. Meteorol. Soc., 48-51.
33. Waldvogel, A., Federer, B. & Grimm, P. (1979) Criteria for the detection of hail cells. J. Appl. Meteorol. 18: 1521-1525.
34. Witt, A., Eilts, M. D., Stumpf, G. J., Johnson, J. T., Mitchell, E. D. & Thomas, K. W (1998) An enhanced hail detection algorithm for the WSR-88D. Wea. Forecasting 13: 286-303.
35. Zhang, J., Howard, K. & Gourley, J. J. (2005) Constructing three-dimensional multiple-radar reflectivity mosaics: Examples of convective storms and stratiform rain echoes. J. Atmos. Oceanic. Technol. 22: 30-42.