Effects of reduced spatial resolution on the NEXRAD storm sequence algorithms

Details

• Personal Author:
  McAdie, Colin
• Corporate Authors:
  Environmental Research Laboratories (U.S.). Environmental Sciences Group
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research)
• Description:
  The spatial resolution of radar reflectivities obtained from NCAR's CP-2 Doppler radar on 4 June 1983, 2130-2230 G.m.t., is reduced by averaging and skipping range gates, and skipping entire rays. The number of storms identified by the NEXRAD Storm Sequence algorithms increases as the averaging or skipping interval is lengthened. Causes of this increase are ground clutter effects, multiple identification of storms, and enhanced detection of small storms. Large isolated thunderstorms are consistently identified at all spatial resolutions tested. Determination of the probability of hail does, however, depend upon the spatial resolution used; averaging range gates can reduce reflectivity maxima to below hail predictor thresholds in cases where the full resolution reflectivity values exceed these thresholds.
• Series:
  NOAA technical memorandum ERL ESG 21
• Document Type:
  Technical Memorandum
• License:
  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
• Rights Information:
  CC0 Public Domain
• Compliance:
  Library
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/32837/noaa_32837_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 84.25 MB]
• Collection(s):
  Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:9066f28ab0fb7bab66635669577cab315ebdd4cd28361f55cd4d0d3cbb6b7026