Study on deep-learning-based identification of hydrometeors observed by dual polarization Doppler weather radars

Hydrometeor classification for dual polarization Doppler weather radar echo is a procedure that identifies hydrometeor types based on the scattering properties of precipitation particles to polarized electromagnetic waves. The difference in shape, size, or spatial orientation among different types of hydrometeor will produce different scattering characteristics for the electromagnetic waves in a certain polarization state. Moreover, the polarimetric measurements, which are calculated from the radar data and closely associated with these characteristics, are also different. The comprehensive utilization of these polarimetric measurements can effectively improve the identification accuracy of the phase of various hydrometeors. In this paper, a new identification method of the hydrometeor type based on deep learning (DL) and fuzzy logic algorithm is proposed: firstly, the feature extraction method based on deep learning is used for training the correlation among multiple parameters and extracting the relatively independent features. Secondly, the Softmax classifier is applied to classify the precipitation patterns, including rain, snow, and hail, and it is based on the features extracted by deep learning algorithm. Finally, the fuzzy logic algorithm is adopted to identify the hydrometeor types in various precipitation patterns. In order to test the accuracy of the classification results, the hydrometeor classifier has been applied to a stratiform cloud precipitation process, and it is found that the classification results agree well with the other polarimetric products.