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Proceedings with Extended Abstracts (single PDF file) - Radio ...

Proceedings with Extended Abstracts (single PDF file) - Radio ...

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VHF RADAR REFLECTIVITY, VERTICAL VELOCITIES ANDRAINFALL RATE DURING TYPHOON PASSAGES OVER TAIWANC.J. Pan 1 , M.L. Hsu 1 , L.J. Chung 1 , J. Röttger 2,1 and J. Wu 11 Institute of Space Science, National Central University, Chung-Li, Taiwan2Max-Planck-Institut, 37191 Katlenburg-Lindau, GermanyThe Chung-Li VHF radar, located in northern Taiwan, was operated in September and October2001 to study the radar reflectivity and wind field changes during the approach, passage anddeparture of typhoons. The reflectivity is given by humidity and temperature changes eithercaused by turbulence or by stable layering. Additionally the radar observes mean and turbulentvelocities. Other than weather radars, the VHF radars obtain the vertical pro<strong>file</strong> of theseparameters over a fixed location. Besides measuring the horizontal wind, they are particularlysuited to measure the reflectivity and the vertical velocity component. Typhoon studies had alsobeen done earlier <strong>with</strong> VHF radars (e.g., Röttger et al., 1991; Shibagaki et al., 2003).The Chung-Li VHF Radar is a stratosphere-troposphere (ST) radar operating on 52 MHz <strong>with</strong>peak power of 80 kW and an antenna array of 192 Yagis separated into three antenna arrays forreceiving in the spaced antenna mode. For the presented typhoon observations the antennas werepointed vertically. The height resolution was 300 m, and 102 ms coherent integration time wasapplied, which corresponds to a maximum resolvable radial velocity of 14.4 m/s. One recordincluded 256 data points, which were analyzed <strong>with</strong> the complex auto-covariance method,yielding the radar echo power (from which we deduced the relative reflectivity), the mean radialvelocity (which we assumed to represent a reasonable estimate of the vertical velocity) and theturbulent velocity for dwell times of 29 s. This method is very robust <strong>with</strong> respect to low signalto-noiseratios, which usually characterize echoes from the upper parts of the observable range upto 10 km. The determination of the horizontal velocity <strong>with</strong> the spaced antenna method will beperformed in a later study. Here we concentrate on reflectivity and vertical velocity and someprecipitation observations during passages of three typhoons.Two days of VHF radarobservations oftyphoon Nari, which broughttorrential rain and large damageto the island of Taiwanin September 2001Radial velocity in vertical beam19.09.01 20.09.01Reflectivity in vertical beamFig. 1 Typhoon Nari having passed Taiwan on 20 Sep. 2001VHF radar reflectivity and velocity in vertical beam274

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