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Fuzzy logic based melting layer recognition from 3 GHz dual polarization radar: appraisal with NWP model and radio sounding observations

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Abstract

The advent of polarimetry makes it possible to categorize hydrometeor inferences more accurately by providing detailed information of the scattering properties. In light of this, the authors have developed a fuzzy logic based system for the recognition of melting layer in the atmosphere. The fuzzy system is based on characterizing melting layer scatterers from non-melting scatterers using five crisp inputs, namely, horizontal reflectivity (Z H), differential reflectivity (Z DR), co-polar correlation coefficient (ρ HV), linear depolarization ratio (LDR) and height of radar measurements (H). For the implementation of melting layer recognition, the study employs the dual polarized signatures from the 3 GHz Chilbolton Advanced Meteorological Radar (CAMRA). Furthermore, a simple but effective averaging procedure for melting level estimation from a volume RHI scan is proposed. The proposed scheme has been evaluated with Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulated and radio soundings retrieved melting level height over a total of 84 RHI scan-based bright band cases. The results confirm that the estimated melting level heights from the proposed method are in good agreement with the WRF model and radio sounding observations. The 3 GHz radar melting level height estimates correspond with the R 2 and RMSE values of 0.92 and 0.24 km, respectively, when compared to the radio soundings, and 0.93 and 0.21 km, respectively, when compared to the WRF model results. Moreover, the related R 2 and RMSE values are reported as 0.93 and 0.22 km respectively between the WRF and radio soundings retrievals. This implies that the downscaled WRF modelled melting level height may also be used for operational or research needs.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the British Atmospheric Data Centre and the Radio Communications Research Unit at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory for providing the radar and radio soundings data. The FNL data for this study are from the Research Data Archive (RDA) which is maintained by the Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). NCAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The original data are available from the RDA (http://dss.ucar.edu) in dataset number ds083.2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TR, UK

    Tanvir Islam, Miguel A. Rico-Ramirez, Dawei Han, Michaela Bray & Prashant K. Srivastava

  2. Hydro-Environmental Research Centre, Cardiff School of Engineering, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Michaela Bray

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  1. Tanvir Islam
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  2. Miguel A. Rico-Ramirez
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Correspondence to Tanvir Islam.

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Islam, T., Rico-Ramirez, M.A., Han, D. et al. Fuzzy logic based melting layer recognition from 3 GHz dual polarization radar: appraisal with NWP model and radio sounding observations. Theor Appl Climatol 112, 317–338 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-012-0721-z

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