95-GHz polarimetric radar measurements of orographic cap clouds

Abstract

The 95-GHz polarimetric radar used in these experiments is a portable, high-power, dual-polarization radar capable of characterizing the complex scattering matrix in two pulses. The scatterer's polarimetric response is characterized in terms of the Mueller matrix, a form that is seen to be convenient for computing the response of a scatterer for any arbitrary combination of transmit and receive antenna polarizations. Polarimetric data from orographic cap clouds are found to be sensitive to ice-particle orientation and composition. Comparison of radar-observed reflectivities with those computed from in situ images shows good agreement if the volume fraction of ice in ice-air mixtures is taken into account. -from Authors