advanced

Remote sensing research and technology (satellites, profilers, radars) is being applied in a multitude of ways in many RAL projects.

The NCAR S-Pol radar has been used in an on-going effort to develop algorithms for classifying hydrometeor types, quantifying winter precipitation, and improving the parameterization of winter storm microphysics in numerical forecast models. Preliminary studies indicate that radar can detect subtle changes in particle types and that it should be possible to estimate the governing parameters of hydrometeor distributions.

An ability to match radar measurements and disdrometer observations is a requisite in the development of radar-based algorithms for discriminating between hydrometeor types and improving the quantification of winter precipitation. Preliminary studies suggest that it may be possible to retrieve the governing parameters of particle size distributions (PSDs) in winter storms from radar measurements.