ESS124
Prof. Jin-Yi Yu
Radar Echo and Precipitation
C:\Documents and Settings\Bob\Desktop\Work\Book-Edition 3\E3 Chapter 02 Instrumentation\Chapter 2 Final Figures\CH2 Gifs with copyright for CD\Fig.2.09.jpg
•The amount of the microwave energy returned to radars depends on three parameters: (1) the size of precipitation particles, (2) the type of precipitation (ice crystal, hail, rain), and (3) the number of particle in the radar beam.
•The greater the size and number of particles the beam intercepts, the larger the returned signal will be.
•Therefore, larger values of radar reflectivity are associated with heavy rain or hail and small values with non-precipitation clouds.