A new method for retrieving air velocity fluctuations in the cloud-capped boundary layer (BL) using radar reflectivity and the Doppler velocity fields is proposed. The method was developed on the basis of data obtained by the Transportable Atmospheric Radar (TARA) located in Cabauw, Netherlands, at 0500¿0812 UTC 8 May 2004, and tested using a detailed trajectory ensemble model of the cloud-capped BL. During the observations, the BL depth was 1200 m, and the cloud base (measured by a lidar) was at 500¿550 m. No preliminary assumptions concerning the shapes of drop size distributions were made. On the basis of the TARA radar data, vertical profiles of the vertical air velocity standard deviation, of turbulent dissipation rate, etc. were estimated. The correlation functions indicate the existence of large eddies in the BL with a characteristic horizontal scale of about 600 m. Analysis of the slope (the scaling parameter) of the structure functions indicates that turbulence above 400 m can be considered to be isotropic. Below this level, the turbulence becomes anisotropic. The rate of anisotropy increases with the decrease of the height above the surface. The averaged values of the dissipation rate were evaluated as 1¿2 cm2 s¿3. The importance of using the cloud-capped BL model as a link between different types of observed data (radar, lidar, aircraft, etc.) is discussed. More data should be analyzed to understand the changes in the turbulent structure of the BL during its growth, as well as during cloud and drizzle formation.@en

In situ measurements indicate the complexity and nonunique character of radar reflectivity¿liquid water content (Z¿LWC) relationships in stratocumulus and cumulus clouds. Parameters of empirical (statistical) Z¿LWC dependences vary within a wide range. Respectively, the accuracy of retrieval algorithms remains low. This situation is partially related to the fact that empirical algorithms and parameters are often derived without a corresponding understanding of physical mechanisms responsible for the formation of the Z¿LWC diagrams. In this study, the authors investigate the processes of formation of the Z¿LWC relationships using a new trajectory ensemble model of the cloud-topped boundary layer (BL). In the model, the entire volume of the BL is covered by Lagrangian parcels advected by a turbulent-like velocity field. The time-dependent velocity field is generated by a turbulent model and obeys the correlation turbulent laws. Each Lagrangian parcel represents the ¿cloud parcel model¿ with an accurate description of processes of diffusion growth¿evaporation of aerosols and droplets and droplet collisions. The fact that parcels are adjacent to each other allows one to calculate sedimentation of droplets and precipitation (drizzle) formation. The characteristic parcel size is 50 m; the number of parcels is 1840. The model calculates droplet size distributions (DSDs), as well as their moments (e.g., aerosol and drop concentration, mass content, radar reflectivity) in each parcel. In the course of the model integration, Z¿LWC relationships are calculated for each parcel, as well as the scattering diagram including all parcels. The model reproduces in situ observed types of the Z¿LWC relationships. It is shown that different regimes represent different stages of cloud evolution: diffusion growth, beginning of drizzle formation, and stage of heavy drizzle, respectively. The large scattering of the Z¿LWC relationships is found to be an inherent property of any drizzling cloud. Different zones on the Z¿LWC diagram are related to cloud volumes located at different levels within a cloud and having different DSD. This finding allows for improvement of retrieval algorithms@en

A new method to estimate the Doppler spectrum parameters of atmospheric signals based on adaptive filtering is presented. The new method is compared with the traditional FFT-based method. In order to do so both methods have been applied to process the same atmospheric data set obtained by the FM-CW polarimetric Doppler radar TARA (Transportable Atmospheric Radar) developed by IRCTR. In section 2 the adaptive filtering processing is described. The details of the FFT-based algorithm will not be described. The reader is referred to Doviak and Zrnic (1993) for an extensive discussion. Section 3 describes the practical implementation of both algoritms in the radar. In section 4 the results of both algorithms are discussed and compared. Section 5 outlines the advantages and disadvantages of both methods.@en