Depolarization in Ice Crystals and Its Effect on Radar Polarimetric Measurements

Abstract Simultaneous transmission and reception of horizontally and vertically polarized waves is a preferable choice technique for dual-polarization weather radar. One of the consequences of such a choice is possible cross-coupling between orthogonally polarized waves. Cross-coupling depends on depolarizing properties of propagation media, and it is usually negligible in rain because the net mean canting angle of raindrops is close to zero. Snow crystals at the tops of thunderstorm clouds are often canted in the presence of strong electric fields and produce noticeable cross-coupling between radar signals at horizontal and vertical polarizations if both signals are transmitted and received simultaneously. As a result, peculiar-looking radial signatures of differential reflectivity ZDR and differential phase ΦDP are commonly observed in the crystal regions of thunderstorms. The paper presents examples of strong depolarization in oriented crystals from the data collected by the polarimetric prototype of t...

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