Precipitation Canting Angle Distribution Estimation from Covariance Matrix Analysis of CSU-CHILL Radar Data

The spatial distribution of precipitation particles is not well known. Raindrops are are thought to have zero mean canting angle while ice crystals are known to be aligned by electric fields. Such canting angle information can be derived from eigen analysis of covariance matrices. Other techniques involving the power scattering matrix and relative averaged scattering matrix have also been used to deduce the mean canting angle. These and other various techniques are applied to CSU-CHILL radar data and compared. The spread of the canting angle distribution is also discussed. The experimental results are supported with a theoretical model.