DPR MEASUREMENTS OF HAIL BEARING COLUMNS

By comparing the observations of heavy storms performed by the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) and the corresponding hydrometeor classification based on ground-based polarimetric measurements of the Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) we showed that the DPR measurements are heavily affected by non-uniform beam filling (NUBF). The presence of heavily rimed particles within the instrument field of view generates significant signal enhancements at the Ka band caused by multiple scattering (MS). MS and NUBF introduce large ambiguities in the estimate of effective reflectivity below the freezing level (FL), especially at Ka band, which strongly reduces DPR capabilities for detecting hail at the ground.