Amanda Murphy-April 27

A Polarimetric and Microphysical Analysis of the Stratiform Rain Region of MCSs

Speakers

Start

April 27, 2018 - 3:00 pm

End

April 27, 2018 - 4:00 pm

Address

120 David L. Boren Blvd., Room 5600, Norman, OK 73072   View map

A Polarimetric and Microphysical Analysis of the Stratiform Rain Region of MCSs

The microphysical structure of the stratiform rain region of mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) is of great interest to both the observational and modeling communities. To aid in that understanding, polarimetric radars provide valuable information on the size, shape, orientation, and phase of hydrometeors, including ice particles. Now that dual-polarization technology has been fully implemented on the WSR-88D radar network for a number of years, there exists a rich database of polarimetric radar data for analyses to facilitate a deeper understanding of the microphysical properties of the stratiform rain region of MCSs above the melting layer.

This seminar will focus on a new column-vertical profile (CVP) technique to process and interpret polarimetric WSR-88D radar data, branching off of the quasi-vertical profile technique (QVP; Ryzhkov et al. 2016). This technique differs from the QVP technique in that the vertical profiles it produces are restricted to a sector of set radial and azimuthal extent. Additionally, ice microphysical retrieval techniques, newly developed for QVPs, will be tested using the CVP data and compared to aircraft in situ data. These analyses will focus on one case from the MC3E campaign; ongoing and future work including analyses of additional MCSs and comparisons of multi-wavelength radar QVPs will also be discussed.