Hydrologic visibility of weather radars operating in high-mountainous regions: A case study for the Toce catchment (Italy) during the mesoscale alpine programme
T. Pellarin et al., Hydrologic visibility of weather radars operating in high-mountainous regions: A case study for the Toce catchment (Italy) during the mesoscale alpine programme, PHYS CH P B, 25(10-12), 2000, pp. 953-957
Citations number
5
Categorie Soggetti
Earth Sciences
Journal title
PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF THE EARTH PART B-HYDROLOGY OCEANS AND ATMOSPHERE
The use of weather radar systems in mountainous regions comes up against ma
jor visibility problems due to (i) the interactions of the electromagnetic
waves with the relief (ground clutter and screening effects) and (ii) the v
ertical structure of the atmospheric reflectivities (bright band, partial b
eam filling at cloud top). The concept of "hydrologic visibility" was propo
sed to designate a procedure aimed at pre-determining the quality of rain-r
ate measurements that a given weather radar system operating with a given s
can strategy may obtain over a given hydrological catchment. A case study i
s presented here to illustrate the procedure for the Toce catchment (1620 k
m(2)), a high-elevation mountainous catchment in the Ticino Region, Italy,
covered during the Mesoscale Alpine Programme (MAP) with three research and
operational weather radars (S-Pol/NCAR, Ronsard/CETP, Monte-Lema/SMI). An
inter-comparison of the performance obtained in terms of rain-rate estimati
on errors with the various radars and various scanning strategies is realiz
ed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.