TY - JOUR
T1 - Accurate characterization of winter precipitation using multi-angle snowflake camera, visual hull, advanced scattering methods and polarimetric radar
AU - Notaroš, Branislav M.
AU - Bringi, Viswanathan N.
AU - Kleinkort, Cameron
AU - Kennedy, Patrick
AU - Huang, Gwo Jong
AU - Thurai, Merhala
AU - Newman, Andrew J.
AU - Bang, Wonbae
AU - Lee, Gyu Won
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 by the authors.
PY - 2016/6/11
Y1 - 2016/6/11
N2 - This article proposes and presents a novel approach to the characterization of winter precipitation and modeling of radar observables through a synergistic use of advanced optical disdrometers for microphysical and geometrical measurements of ice and snow particles (in particular, a multi-angle snowflake camera-MASC), image processing methodology, advanced method-of-moments scattering computations, and state-of-the-art polarimetric radars. The article also describes the newly built and established MASCRAD (MASC + Radar) in-situ measurement site, under the umbrella of CSU-CHILL Radar, as well as the MASCRAD project and 2014/2015 winter campaign. We apply a visual hull method to reconstruct 3D shapes of ice particles based on high-resolution MASC images, and perform "particle-by-particle" scattering computations to obtain polarimetric radar observables. The article also presents and discusses selected illustrative observation data, results, and analyses for three cases with widely-differing meteorological settings that involve contrasting hydrometeor forms. Illustrative results of scattering calculations based on MASC images captured during these events, in comparison with radar data, as well as selected comparative studies of snow habits from MASC, 2D video-disdrometer, and CHILL radar data, are presented, along with the analysis of microphysical characteristics of particles. In the longer term, this work has potential to significantly improve the radar-based quantitative winter-precipitation estimation.
AB - This article proposes and presents a novel approach to the characterization of winter precipitation and modeling of radar observables through a synergistic use of advanced optical disdrometers for microphysical and geometrical measurements of ice and snow particles (in particular, a multi-angle snowflake camera-MASC), image processing methodology, advanced method-of-moments scattering computations, and state-of-the-art polarimetric radars. The article also describes the newly built and established MASCRAD (MASC + Radar) in-situ measurement site, under the umbrella of CSU-CHILL Radar, as well as the MASCRAD project and 2014/2015 winter campaign. We apply a visual hull method to reconstruct 3D shapes of ice particles based on high-resolution MASC images, and perform "particle-by-particle" scattering computations to obtain polarimetric radar observables. The article also presents and discusses selected illustrative observation data, results, and analyses for three cases with widely-differing meteorological settings that involve contrasting hydrometeor forms. Illustrative results of scattering calculations based on MASC images captured during these events, in comparison with radar data, as well as selected comparative studies of snow habits from MASC, 2D video-disdrometer, and CHILL radar data, are presented, along with the analysis of microphysical characteristics of particles. In the longer term, this work has potential to significantly improve the radar-based quantitative winter-precipitation estimation.
KW - 2D video-disdrometer
KW - Electromagnetic scattering
KW - Frozen phase microphysics
KW - Hydrometeor shapes
KW - In-situ measurements
KW - Multi-angle snowflake camera
KW - Polarimetric radar
KW - Winter precipitation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84977123686&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/atmos7060081
DO - 10.3390/atmos7060081
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84977123686
SN - 2073-4433
VL - 7
JO - Atmosphere
JF - Atmosphere
IS - 6
M1 - 81
ER -