Precipitation radars are vertical profilers that provide vertical profile of reflectivity. One of the most advanced instrument is the Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) onboard of the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) platform, which operates both in the Ka and Ku bands.

The vertical profiles of reflectivity have an approximate vertical resolution of 125 m, which is similar to the resolution of the MRR. GPM was launched in 2014 in replacement of the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM).

From the profiles of reflectivity, it is possible to detect a “bright band” (when it exists), that is defined as a maximum of reflectivity. The bright band is expected to correspond to the melting layer, a variable of high interest to study the rain/snow transition.

However, the observations from the precipitation radars are known to be inaccurate in mountainous regions, due to the multiple echoes from the steep terrain, this is known as the ground clutter effect. Within the iFROG project, we aim at assessing how much of the signal can still be retrieved in mountainous regions. To achieve this goal, we will compare the DPR observations to the MRR ones.

Fig. - Artist’s concept of the GPM Core Observatory; source: wikipedia

Updated on 23 June 2022