Extended retrievals of precipitation parameters in Niamey, Niger from a 95-GHz Doppler radar

Retrievals of the mean vertical air motion and precipitation parameters collected within precipitating clouds during an extended field campaign of a mobile W-band radar facility are presented. These data were available as part of a suite of platforms connected with the US Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility (AMF) in an international deployment for the region of Niamey, Niger in 2006. Detailed time-height and cumulative retrievals of vertical velocity and the slope parameter of the drop size distribution are available for the entire 2006 monsoon season (May - September) during which times the AMF captured several convective systems typically responsible for the bulk of the rainfall in the Sahel. Emphasis is on the long-term statistical properties of dynamic retrievals in tropical convective storms capitalizing on the continuous AMF data record during the monsoon period. Additional analysis for individual wet monsoon events has been provided to highlight the manner and detailed insight with which W-band retrievals and collocated AMF facilities open new opportunities to bridge gaps between traditional cloud observations in climate research and those measurements from within precipitation.