A Theory for the Determination of Wind and Precipitation Velocities with Doppler Radars

Abstract

Abstract The feasibility of determining components of wind velocity and precipitation particle terminal fallspeeds from the equation of continuity for air and precipitation velocity data collected by Doppler radars is investigated. The investigation is carded out for a system which utilizes two Doppler radars as well as for a system which utilizes three Doppler radars. When only two Doppler radars are available, it is necessary to assume that the terminal fallspeed of precipitation particles is known. This assumption is unnecessary when the data from three noncollinear Doppler radars are available. For suitably restricted precipitation regions, the problems are shown to be well-posed in the mathematical sense and explicit representations of the solutions are obtained.