Method for estimation of rain rate with Rayleigh and Mie scattering assumptions on the Z–R relationship for different rainfall types Original Research Article

A comparison of the rain rate estimated with the assumptions of Rayleigh and Mie scattering is made. We analyzed the different relationships between the radar reflective factor and rain rate (so-called Z–R relationship) with both scattering models for different DSDs (droplet size distributions) and rainfall types as the wavelength is 2.2 cm which is in accord with the band of TRMM/PR. Meanwhile we introduced a discrete ordinates method to retrieve the Z–R relationship for Mie scattering assumption. It is found that the retrieval result can be represented as the sum of some simple Z–R relationships. By the analysis of the Z–R relationships estimated from Rayleigh and Mie scattering assumptions in the rain types, we found that the difference of Z–R relationships between Rayleigh and Mie scattering in the thunderstorm that represents the larger raindrop size is larger than that in the drizzle that represent the smaller raindrop size.