Simultaneous Radar Reflectivity Measurements and Refractive Index Spectra in the Clear Atmosphere

Simultaneous measurements of refractive index and radar reflectivity have been made in the clear atmosphere. The theoretical relationship between the refractive index spectrum and reflectivity described by Tatarski was used to compute reflectivity from the refractive index data. Excellent agreement is shown between the computed and measured reflectivity. These results indicate, (1) reflections from the clear atmosphere can be described quantitatively in terms of the refractivity spectrum, and (2) the refractivity spectrum well represents the atmosphere for these data out to limiting microscales smaller than 5 cm.