Weather radar to study rain and cloud events

Abstract

With an increase in spectral congestion, signal propagation are increasingly faded. Studies have been done on rain and clouds to predict such hydrometeors in order to determine the attenuation. For many years, Radar has been used to detect rain and its data have been used to estimate rainfall rate. In more recent years, Radar has been used to identify and separate clouds from rain. Besides cloud and rain, another phenomenon worth studying is the melting layer. Different combination of weather measurement instruments are increasingly used now a days to determine various weather, climate and hydrometeor characteristics. Such information could help determine or predict weather conditions and characteristics that are useful when establishing communication links. In this report, the author uses Radiosonde information from different cities, weather station information from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Meteorological Aerodrome Report (METAR) from Singapore Changi Airport. A developed method and process based on data from radiosonde and weather Radar, has been applied to determine the various levels of a melting layer. The results obtained showed the range for the 0°C isothermal height in Singapore is between 4400m and 5400m and the range of height for the “bright-band” maximum reflectivity point was concluded to be between 3700m to 4700m. A relation for melting layer’s height and ground temperature was noticed and a trend in melting layer’s height was seen as it shifts from tropical, sub-tropical and temperature climate. Even the geographical location such as inland, coastal or island cities had certain effect on the melting layer. Further study of all this relation and trends would be useful in better estimating the characteristics of a melting layer in the future.