Comparison of Precipitation Observations from a Prototype Space-based Cloud Radar and Ground-based Radars

A prototype space-based cloud radar has been developed and was installed on an airplane to observe a precipitation system over Tianjin,China in July 2010.Ground-based S-band and Ka-band radars were used to examine the observational capability of the prototype.A cross-comparison algorithm between different wavelengths,spatial resolutions and platform radars is presented.The reflectivity biases,correlation coefficients and standard deviations between the radars are analyzed.The equivalent reflectivity bias between the S-and Ka-band radars were simulated with a given raindrop size distribution.The results indicated that reflectivity bias between the S-and Ka-band radars due to scattering properties was less than 5 dB,and for weak precipitation the bias was negligible.The prototype space-based cloud radar was able to measure a reasonable vertical profile of reflectivity,but the reflectivity below an altitude of 1.5 km above ground level was obscured by ground clutter.The measured reflectivity by the prototype space-based cloud radar was approximately 10.9 dB stronger than that by the S-band Doppler radar(SA radar),and 13.7 dB stronger than that by the ground-based cloud radar.The reflectivity measured by the SA radar was 0.4 dB stronger than that by the ground-based cloud radar.This study could provide a method for the quantitative examination of the observation ability for space-based radars.