STATISTICAL MODELS OF SUMMER RAINSHOWERS DERIVED FROM FINE-SCALE RADAR OBSERVATIONS.

Abstract

The statistical modeling of rain cell characteristics based on high-resolution radar measurements of the cell structure is studied. The fine-scale three-dimensional structure of summer rainshowers in the mid-Atlantic region has been analyzed leading to statistical descriptions of the rain cells in terms of a variety of physical cell parameters. Core reflectivity profiles, contour area and altitude extent of the cells have been generated along with the frequency of occurrence for various storm classes and categories. The statistical descriptions of the rain cells for the mid-Atlantic region were compared to those from previous investigators at other geographical locations. These results are relevant to the design of terrestrial and earth-satellite microwave communication systems.