The Potential for Microphysical Observations through polarimetric radar in the south Asian monsoon environment: Emerging Opportunities

Dual-polarization radars are now considered indispensable tool for not only operations but also research. Over the last decade most of the Weathers service radars in Europe and the United States have been upgraded to dual-polarization. Basic research in dual-polarization observations remains strong worldwide, especially now making entries into the south Asian domain. The polarimetric radar observations for characterizing precipitation has been used extensively in tropical environment or understanding precipitation regimes. This has been used to characterize change in drop size distribution characteristics between south west and north east monsoons as part of the TRMM research programs ( Kozu et al, 2006, Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan , Vol. 84A, pp. 195--209, 2006). Similar research in Brazil showed the ability of polarimetric observations for regime classification (Cifelli, R., W. A. Petersen, L. D. Carey, S. A. Rutledge, and M. A. F. da Silva Dias, Radar observations of the kinematic, microphysical, and precipitation characteristics of two MCSs in TRMM LBA, J. Geophys. Res., 107(D20), 8077). Thus there is immense untapped potential to understand the microphysical characteristics of south Asian monsoon at a larger scale , than that has been observed with ins-situ instruments ( Maitra and Chakravarthy, Electronic Letters , 2005 ). More recently Indian subcontinent has been starting to deploy dual polarization radars for cloud and precipitation research as well as operational applications. There are two operational dual-polarization C band radars operated by the India Meteorlogical Department , whereas, one X band and one Ka band dual-polarization radar haven been deployed by the Indian Institute if Tropical meteorology. This paper will show preliminary observations and discuss the potential of the dual-polarization radar observations for South Asian monsoon microphysics