Observations of MIE Scattering Signatures with the CSU-CHILL Dual-wavelength Dual-polarization Weather Radar System

The CSU-CHILL weather radar is capable of simultaneous dual-wavelength, dual-polarization weather radar data collection at S-band and X-band as described in [1]. The availability of a simultaneous, collocated polarimetric data set at two different wavelengths allows studying the hydrometeors present in the radar resolution volume through the difference in their scattering properties at each wavelength (as it relates to particle size relative to wavelength). This paper will present MIE scattering signatures in thunderstorms obtained after correcting the X-band data for attenuation using the S-band data as a constraint to minimize a cost function, and show how those MIE signals may relate to other dual-polarization parameters such as differential reflectivity and copol crosscorrelation to identify hydrometer types such as hail. The figure below shows some examples of the results to be presented. [1] Junyent, F., V. Chandrasekar, V. Bringi, S. Rutledge, P. Kennedy, D. Brunkow, J. George, and R. Bowie, In Press: Transformation of the CSU-CHILL Radar Facility to a Dual-frequency, Dual-polarization, Doppler system. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., Early Online Release.