Estimation of rain kinetic energy flux density from radar reflectivity factor and/or rain rate

Y. U. Nan, G. U.Y. Delrieu, Brice Boudevillain, Pieter Hazenberg, Remko Uijlenhoet

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volumeConference contributionScientificpeer-review

Abstract

This study offers an approach to estimate the rainfall kinetic energy (KE) by rain intensity (I) and radar reflectivity factor (Z) separately, or jointly, based on the one- or two-moment scaled raindrop size distribution (DSD) formulation, which contains (a) I and/or Z observations, (b) dimensionless probability density function (pdf) and (c) some intrinsic parameters. The key point of this formulation is to explain all variability of the DSD by the evolution of observations, hence the paland intrinsic parameters are considered as constants. A robust method is proposed to estimate the climatic values for these parameters, and our 28-month DSD data are used to test this estimation process. The results show that three relationships (KE-I, KE-Z and KE-IZ) which link the observations (I and/or Z) to rainfall kinetic energy (KE) are well established based on the climatic scaled DSD formulation. In particular, the combination of Iand Z yields a significant improvement of estimation of KE.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationWeather Radar and Hydrology
Pages141-146
Number of pages6
Publication statusPublished - 2012
Externally publishedYes
EventInternational Symposium on Weather Radar and Hydrology, WRaH 2011 - Exeter, United Kingdom
Duration: 18 Apr 201121 Apr 2011

Publication series

NameIAHS-AISH Publication
Volume351
ISSN (Print)0144-7815

Conference

ConferenceInternational Symposium on Weather Radar and Hydrology, WRaH 2011
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityExeter
Period18/04/1121/04/11

Keywords

  • Kinetic energy
  • Radar reflectivity factor
  • Rain intensity
  • Raindrop size distribution

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