Estimates of path attenuation for the TRMM radar

Author

Meneghini, R. ; Kozu, T. ; Jones, J.A. ; Iguchi, T. ; Okamoto, K.

Author_Institution

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

Volume

4

fYear

1998

fDate

6-10 Jul 1998

Firstpage

1882

Abstract

It is well known that radar signals above 10 GHz can suffer significant attenuation in rain even over the relatively short rain paths associated with near-nadir viewing angles. Also well known is the problem of instabilities in estimating the radar reflectivity factor, Z, from measurements at a single attenuating wavelength radar. For a single-wavelength, singly polarized, non-Doppler radar such as the TRMM radar, four approaches are presently available for estimating attenuation: the Hitschfeld-Bordan, the surface reference technique (SRT), the `slope method´ and the mirror-image. A combination of the first 3 methods is used in a hybrid algorithm for rain estimation. Assessing the accuracy of the SRT is, therefore, important in determining the reliability in correcting for attenuation effects

Keywords

atmospheric techniques; meteorological radar; microwave propagation; rain; remote sensing by radar; spaceborne radar; tropospheric electromagnetic wave propagation; 13.796 GHz; 13.801 GHz; 2.17 cm; Hitschfeld-Bordan method; SHF; TRMM; algorithm; atmosphere; measurement technique; meteorological radar; microwave radar; near-nadir viewing angle; path attenuation; radar remote sensing; radiowave propagation; rain; rainfall; slope method; spaceborne radar; surface reference technique; Area measurement; Attenuation measurement; Extraterrestrial measurements; Radar measurements; Rain; Reflectivity; Sea measurements; Sea surface; Statistics; Wavelength measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium Proceedings, 1998. IGARSS '98. 1998 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Seattle, WA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4403-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.1998.703683

Filename

703683