Estimation of Near-Ground Propagation Conditions Using Radar Ground Echo Coverage

Abstract

The vertical gradient of refractivity (dN/dh) determines the path of the radar beam; namely, the larger the negative values of the refractivity gradient, the more the beam bends toward the ground. The variability of the propagation conditions significantly affects the coverage of the ground echoes and, thus, the quality of the scanning radar measurements. The information about the vertical gradient of refractivity is usually obtained from radiosonde soundings whose use, however, is limited by their coarse temporal and spatial resolution. Because radar ground echo coverage provides clues about how severe the beam bending can be, we have investigated a method that uses radar observations to infer propagation conditions with better temporal resolution than the usual soundings. Using the data collected during the International H2O Project (IHOP_2002), this simple method has shown some skill in capturing the propagation conditions similar to these estimated from soundings. However, the evaluation of the method has been challenging because of 1) the limited resolution of the conventional soundings in time and space, 2) the lack of other sources of data with which to compare the results, and 3) the ambiguity in the separation of ground from weather echoes.