Climatological characterization of three-dimensional storm structure from operational radar and rain gauge data

Abstract

Three algorithms extract information on precipitation type, structure, and amount from operational radar and rain gauge data. Tests on one month of data from one site show that the algorithms perform accurately and provide products that characterize the essential features of the precipitation climatology. The algorithms separate the radar echoes into convective and stratiform regions, statistically summarize the vertical structure of the radar echoes, and determine precipitation rates and amounts on high spatial resolution. The convective and stratiform regions are separated on the basis of the intensity and sharpness of the peaks of echo intensity. The peaks indicate the centers of the convective regions. Precipitation not identified as convective is stratiform. -from Authors