Classification of convective and stratiform types of rain and their characteristics features at a tropical location

The effect of rain attenuation in high frequency signals need proper understanding of the variation of drop size distribution (DSD) separately in convective and stratiform rain due to different characteristics. This paper presents the analysis of variation of vertical rain rate profile for these two types from micro rain radar observations as well as the variation of DSD at ground using disdrometer, of an event observed over Ahmedabad. The bright band signature in vertical rain rate profile is used for rain classification as well as the rain classification based on ground based DSD model is also attempted. The results highlight a rain classification scheme based on lognormal DSD parameter. It is also found that large drops size is more in convective cases associated with high rain rate. It is also observed that for lower rain rates, convective cases have smaller number of bigger drops than stratiform types of rain of same rain intensity. The information will be of importance for classification for rain and rain attenuation study.