Initial Observations for Precipitation Cores With X-Band Dual Polarized Phased Array Weather Radar

The first X-band dual polarized phased array weather radar (DP-PAWR), which simultaneously transmits pulses of horizontal and vertical polarized radiation, was developed and installed at Saitama University, Japan, in December 2017. The DP-PAWR uses mechanical and electronic scanning at azimuth and elevation angles, respectively. It provides polarimetric precipitation measurements via 3-D volume scanning with an update rate between 10 and 60 s, for a range of up to 80 km. Here, we describe the initial DP-PAWR observation results. To evaluate the DP-PAWR observation accuracy, we compared the observational data with radar variables derived from Parsivel disdrometer data. In comparison with the disdrometer, the relative observation accuracy for the DP-PAWR radar reflectively factor had a standard deviation of 1.1 dB and mean value of 0.4 dB. We also conducted detailed observations of a developing thunderstorm using a specific differential phase (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K_{\mathrm {dp}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) column, focusing on the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K_{\mathrm {dp}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> core during the storm. The <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K_{\mathrm {dp}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> core movements provided useful information about the convection flow during the storm.