Aspects of Rain Drop Size Distribution Characteristics from Measurements in Two Mid-Latitude Coastal Locations

Abstract

We examine several different features of DSDs based on data and observations from two mid-latitude coastal locations: (a) the Delmarva peninsula, USA, and (b) Incheon, South Korea. In each case, the full DSD spectra were obtained from two collocated disdrometers. Two events from location (a) and one event from location (b) are presented. For (a), observations and retrievals from NASA’s S-band polarimetric radar are included in the analyses as well as retrieved DSD parameters from the dual-wavelength precipitation radar onboard the Global Precipitation Measurement satellite. For (b), the disdrometer-based DSD data are compared with measurements from another sensor. Our main aim is to examine the underlying shape of the DSDs and their representation by the generalized gamma model.

Keywords

• rain drop size distributions
• generalized gamma model
• underlying shapes