Using NPOL (the NASA S-band polarimetric radar), and a network of 2D video disdrometers for external radar calibration and rain rate estimation, and to determine spatial correlation of rain drop size distribution parameters M. Thurai 1, V. N. Bringi 1, L. Tolstoy 1, and W. A. Petersen 2 1 Dept. of ECE, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, 2 NASA/GSFC Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia During MC3E, the NPOL radar performed repeated RHI and PPI scans (~ every 40 s) over six 2D video disdrometer (2DVD) sites, located 20 to 35 km from the radar. Two cases are considered here: (i) a rapidly evolving multi-cell rain event (with large drops) on 24 April 2011; (ii) a more uniform rain event on 11 May Radar calibration and rain rate estimation: Accurate radar calibration is achieved by extracting Z h and Z dr over the 2DVD sites and quantitatively comparing against 2DVD data-based scattering calculations. After some data filtering, PDF’s of Δ Z h and Δ Z dr distributions are used to determine the system offsets. Below is an example (the 11 May 2011 event). 0. Introduction 4.Summary External (absolute) calibration of reflectivity (Z h ) and Z dr for the S-band NPOL radar during MC3E is demonstrated using DSDs from a network of six 2D-video disdrometers. Gaussian-shaped histograms for ∆Z h and ∆Z dr were obtained from which the mean system offsets were determined. The polarimetric-radar based rainfall accumulations after applying the system offsets were found to be in excellent agreement with the six 2DVD units. The radar-based spatial (horizontal) correlation of R shows azimuthal dependence, particularly for the first event. However, the 50 th percentile levels are similar between the two events, at least up to distances of 4 km. For D 0 and log(N W ), good agreement between radar-based correlations and 2DVD-based spatial correlations were obtained. The radar-based vertical correlations were computed for D 0, log (N W ) and rain water content (q). The D 0 -correlation falls of more slowly than q whereas log N W falls of relatively faster (relative to height above reference at 0.6 km). Near the base of the bright-band located at 2 km above reference, all three correlations fall off quite rapidly with increasing height. Relative to the horizontal correlations for the convective events, the ‘spread’ between the 10 th and 90 th percentile values is significantly reduced for the vertical correlations in stratiform rain. Rain rate retrieval algorithm Rain rate (left panels) and accumulations (right panels), with the correct calibration factors applied Z h and Z dr comparisons between NPOL data in red, and 2DVD data based estimates in blue 2. Horizontal correlations from NPOL PPI data Azimuthal variation of the spatial correlation, with 20 km as the ‘reference’ range The effective 1D spatial correlations of R at the 50 percentile (solid line) as well as 10 and 90 percentile levels (dashed) 24 Apr May 2011 The same as above, but for D 0 and log (N W ) for the 11 May 2011 event. The blue points were derived from the disdrometer data. Acknowledgements: John Gerlach was responsible for the NPOL radar modifications which led to very high data quality. We acknowledge Patrick Gatlin for the 2DVD installation during MC3E. Scatterplots (left), PDF’s for consistency checks (middle) and PDFs of differences (right) Z h offset was determined to be dB and Z dr offset was determined to dB. 3. Vertical correlations for stratiform rain on 11 May NPOL location, 2DVD sites and a PPI scan