Dual-wavelength radar technique development for snow rate estimation: a case study from GCPEx

Huang, Gwo-Jong; Bringi, Viswanathan N.; Newman, Andrew J.; Lee, Gyuwon; Moisseev, Dmitri; Notaroš, Branislav M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1409-2019

Articles | Volume 12, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1409-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1409-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 2

Research article

|

01 Mar 2019

Research article |

| 01 Mar 2019

Dual-wavelength radar technique development for snow rate estimation: a case study from GCPEx

Gwo-Jong Huang, Viswanathan N. Bringi, Andrew J. Newman, Gyuwon Lee, Dmitri Moisseev, and Branislav M. Notaroš

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Final revised paper (published on 01 Mar 2019)
Preprint (discussion started on 06 Aug 2018)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'Dual-Wavelength Radar Technique Development for Snow Rate', Anonymous Referee #1, 03 Sep 2018
- AC1: 'Authors’ Response to Interactive comment from Anonymous Referee #1', Branislav Notaros, 29 Sep 2018
RC2: 'review', Anonymous Referee #2, 10 Oct 2018
- AC2: 'Authors’ Response to Interactive comment from Anonymous Referee #2', Branislav Notaros, 29 Oct 2018

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Anna Wenzel on behalf of the Authors (05 Nov 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (21 Nov 2018) by S. Joseph Munchak

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (22 Nov 2018)

RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (17 Dec 2018)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

This manuscript describes a methodology for snow rate estimation from dual frequency (Ku- and Ka-band) ground radar observations. Overall, I find the manuscript informative and well written. Nevertheless, the following minor issues need to be considered before publication:
1) It is not apparent from Figure 3 and the associated text (page 6, Second paragraph) what is the fraction of particles excluded from the analysis. This is particularly important for the understanding of Fig. 10.
2) While the Huang et al. (2015) and Lia et al. (2013) scattering models are reasonable and computationally simple, so is the the Rayleigh-Gans based approach of Westbrook et al. (2006;2008). This approach is based on the fact that snow particles are characterized by a relative refractive index close to 1.0, which makes it possible to approximate their radar cross-sections as the product of a constant, their squared mass and a form factor that depends on the parameter size. Given the fact that, physically, the Rayleigh-Gans approximation provides more insight into the electromagnetic properties of snow flakes than the empirical evidence that a certain aspect ratio or a certain density may work, the authors should at least compare the radar cross-sections derived from Westbrook et al. (2008) parameterization to those from Huang et al. (2015) and Liao et al. (2013), if not include the fourth approach in Section 3.3.

Westbrook, C. D., R. C. Ball, and P. R. Field, 2006: Radar scattering by aggregate snowflakes. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 132, 897–914.
Westbrook, C. D., R. C. Ball, and P. R. Field, 2008: Corrigendum: Radar scattering by aggregate snowflakes. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 134, 547–548.

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (02 Jan 2019) by S. Joseph Munchak

AR by Branislav Notaros on behalf of the Authors (13 Jan 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (31 Jan 2019) by S. Joseph Munchak

Short summary

This paper proposes a method for snow rate (SR) estimation using observations collected by NASA dual-frequency dual-polarized (D3R) radar during the GPM Cold-season Precipitation Experiment (GCPEx). The new method utilizes dual-wavelength radar reflectivity ratio (DWR) and 2-D-video disdrometer (2DVD) measurements to improve SR estimation accuracy. It is validated by comparing the D3R radar-retrieved SR with accumulated SR directly measured by a Pluvio gauge for an entire GCPEx synoptic event.