Radar and Surface Measurement of Rainfall during CaPE: 26 July 1991 Case Study

Conventional usage of multiparameter radar measurements for rainfall estimation has been associated with tracking the variability of the raindrop size distribution. The use of multiparameter radar measurements in a statistical framework to estimate rainfall is presented in this paper. The techniques developed in this paper are applied to the radar and rain gauge measurement of rainfall observed on 26 July 1991, during the Convection and Precipitation Electrification program. Conventional pointwise estimates of rainfall are also compared. The probability matching procedure, when applied to the radar and surface measurements shows that multiparameter radar algorithms can match the probability distribution functions better than the reflectivity based algorithms, thereby indicating the potential of multiparameter radar measurements for statistical approach to rainfall estimation. 1570 JOURNAL OF APPLIED METEOROLOGY VOLOM-34 Radar and Surface Measurement of Rainfall during CAPE: 26 July 1991 Case Study EUGENIO GORGUCCI lstituto di Fisica dell'.4tmosfera (CNR), Rome, Italy V. CHANDRASEKAR Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado GIANFRANCO SCARCHILLI Istituto di Fisica dell'Atmosfera (CNR), Rome. Italy (Manuscript received 18 January 1994, in final form 31 December 1994) ABSTRACT Conventional usage of multiparameter radar measurements for rainfall estimation has been associated with tracking the variability of the raindrop size distribution. The use of multiparameter radar measurements in a statistical framework to estimate rainfall is presented in this paper. The techniques developed in this paper are applied to the radar and rain gauge measurement of rainfall observed on 26 July 1991, during the Convection and Precipitation Electrification program. Conventional pointwise estimates of rainfall are also compared. The probability matching procedure, when applied to the radar and surface measurements, shows that multipammeter radar algorithms can match the probability distribution functions better than the refiectivity based algorithms, thereby indicating the potential of multiparameter radar measurements for statistical approach to rainfall estimation.