A General Approach to the Retrieval of Raindrop Size Distributions from Wind Profiler Doppler Spectra: Modeling Results

Abstract A technique is described that allows estimates of the raindrop size distribution to be obtained from the Doppler spectra measured by wind-profiling radars. The method makes no a priori assumptions regarding the shape of the drop size distributions. To test the accuracy of the technique, artificial data with realistic statistical properties have been generated and the shape of the model drop size distribution varied, The analysis technique obtains an accuracy of around 10% in the drop size range between 1 and 4 mm for data consistent with typical 50-MHz observations averaged over 5–10 min. There are limitations outside this range and the physical reasons for these are discussed. Simulations with multiple-peaked distributions show that the technique can also well resolve complicated distributions