Investigation of multifrequency/multipolarization radar signatures of rain cells, derived from SIR-C/X-SAR data

During the two SIR-C/X-SAR missions in April and October 1994, a large number of multifrequency/multipolarization synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images were acquired from the Space Shuttle “Endeavour” which show radar signatures of rain cells over land as well as over the ocean. The authors discuss the radar signatures of tropical rain cells that were acquired over the Brazilian rain forest and over the Gulf of Mexico. It is shown that multifrequency/multipolarization radar imagery has the potential to yield valuable information on tropical rain cells, especially on the altitude of the melting layer and the rain rate