Efficient Ways to Learn Weather Radar Polarimetry

The U.S. weather radar network is currently being upgraded with dual-polarization capability. Weather radar polarimetry is an interdisciplinary area of engineering and meteorology. This paper presents efficient ways to learn weather radar polarimetry through several basic and practical topics. These topics include: 1) hydrometeor scattering model and calculation of radar variables; 2) characteristics of polarimetric radar measurements and radar echo classification; and 3) rain microphysics retrieval. The supporting files, data, codes, and results are provided on the Web site http://arrc.ou.edu/~guzhang/Polarimetry/main.html. The study modules provide hands-on experience in the area of weather radar polarimetry and related fields.