Structures of Severe Storms Observed by Dual Polarization Doppler Weather Radar
摘要
Many severe storm phenomena have horizontal length scales in the mesoscale range (on the order of 10–100 km). In the warm season, these relatively small-scale severe weather elements include damaging, thunderstorm-driven winds, rainfall intensities that hamper transportation and eventually overwhelm water drainage systems, and concentrated hailfalls. Cold season severe weather conditions are typically associated with high snowfall rates and significant accumulations of snow and ice. Weather radar provides an effective means of observing mesoscale severe weather systems in all seasons. Advances in weather radar technology have expanded the scope of information available for the real time recognition of severe weather. Radial velocity measurements obtained with Doppler-capable hardware provide considerable insight on three-dimensional storm motion fields. Dual polarization observations have allowed significant improvements in the identification of hydrometeor types and estimations of precipitation rates. In this chapter, we present examples of weather radar data collected during a variety of severe weather conditions.