Relationships between Hydrometeor Type, Dual-Polarization Radar Parameters, and Convective Mode in Lake-effect Convection during the Ontario Winter Lake-effect Systems Project

During the winter of 2013-2014, precipitation measurements were completed in lake-effect convection as a part of the Ontario Winter Lake-effect Systems project. These measurements were acquired during several different lake-effect events at various locations near the eastern and southern shores of Lake Ontario. The precipitation observations included hydrometeor type (usually either aggregate snowflakes or snow pellets/graupel) and intensity of the falling precipitation and were complimented by standard meteorological observations. Radar data collected at the time of these observations from mobile dual-polarization Doppler radars will be analyzed to determine whether previously determined relationships exist between hydrometeor type and differential reflectivity and correlation coefficient. It is suspected that snow pellets will return slightly higher values of differential reflectivity than aggregates and that aggregates will return higher values of correlation coefficient than snow pellets since pellets require the contemporaneous presence of both supercooled liquid water and ice crystals to form while aggregates do not. Based on previous work, it is also likely that smaller-scale convective cells contain more snow pellets than does the larger mesoscale precipitation band for a given thermodynamic profile. Soundings will also be examined to assess how changing atmospheric conditions may have influenced the hydrometeor types.