Precipitation characterization using simultaneous Ku- and Ka-band differential Doppler velocity measurements

Abstract

Radar observed differential Doppler velocity can be a proxy for the dual-frequency ratio for vertical pointing observations. Vertical pointing dual-frequency data was collected with the NASA D3R and the relationship between Ku- and Ka-band velocity measurements is discussed. It is shown that the differential Doppler velocity between frequencies provides insight into the microphysical properties of rain. The differential Doppler velocity can be used to estimate the median volume diameter, D0.