A Robust C - band Hydrometeor Identification Algorithm and Application to a Long Term 1 Polarimetric Radar

37 A new ten category, polarimetric-based hydrometeor identification algorithm (HID) 38 for C-band is developed from theoretical scattering simulations including wet snow, hail, and 39 big drops /melting hail. The HID is applied to data from seven monsoon seasons in Darwin, 40 Australia using the polarimetric C-band C-POL radar, to investigate microphysical 41 differences between monsoon and break periods. Scattering simulations reveal significant 42 Mie effects with large hail (D > 1.5 cm), with reduced reflectivity and enhanced Zdr and Kdp 43 compared with S-band. Wet snow is found to be associated with greatly depreciated hv and 44 moderate values of Zdr. It is noted that large oblate liquid drops can produce the same 45 electromagnetic signatures at C-band as melting hail falling quasi-stably, resulting in some 46 ambiguity in the HID retrievals. 47 Application of the new HID to seven seasons of C-POL data reveal that hail and big 48 drops / melting hail occur much more frequently during break periods compared to monsoon 49 periods. Break periods have a high frequency of vertically aligned ice above 12 km, 50 suggesting the presence of strong electric fields. Reflectivity and mean drop diameter (D0) 51 statistics demonstrate that convective areas in both monsoon and break periods may have 52 robust coalescence or melting precipitation ice processes, leading to enhanced reflectivity 53 and broader distributions of D0. Conversely, for stratiform regions in both regimes, mean 54 reflectivity decreases below the melting level, indicative of evaporative processes. Break 55 periods also have larger ice water path fractions, indicating substantial mixed phase 56 precipitation generation compared to monsoonal periods. In monsoon periods, a larger 57 percentage of precipitation is produced through warm rain processes. 58 59