Microphysical Retrieval from Dual-frequency Gpm P7.1 Observations

Following the success of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), considerable effort has been directed at the next generation of space-based precipitation radar (PR) to be launched aboard the Global Precipitation Measuring (GPM) core satellite. The GPM mission concept is centered on the deployment of a core observatory satellite with an active dual-frequency precipitation radar (DPR), operating at Ku and Ka bands. The DPR aboard the GPM core satellite is expected to improve our knowledge of precipitation processes relative to the single-frequency on microphysics, and better accuracies in rainfall and liquid water content retrievals. This paper presents a new algorithm to retrieve parameters of drop size distribution of GPMDPR. Models have been built for GPM-DPR classification based on intensive study of APR2 (second generation airborne precipitation radar) data from NAMMA (NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis) experiment. Index Terms — GPM, DSD (drop size distribution), Classification