IMPLICATIONS OF THE BACKSCATTERING PROPERTIES OF CONICAL GRAUPEL FOR RADAR POLARIMETRY.

A theoretical examination is presented of the backscattering properties of a model of conical graupel in terms of the radar polarimetric observables, differential reflectivity Z//D//R and circular depolarization ratio CDR. This problem is important for the interpretation of the temporal and spatial variability of these radar signals. This paper determines the characteristic dependence of Z//D//R and CDR on equivalent median volume particle size when the particles have exponential and gamma (m equals 2) drop size distributions. Refs.