Adaptive Attenuation Correction Techniques for C-Band Polarimetric Weather Radars

This paper presents the results of a study designed to evaluate the performance of attenuation correction algorithms due to heavy precipitation at operational C-band weather radar frequencies and using differential phase measurements. This paper proposes the extension of two attenuation correction algorithms and shows a methodology to validate attenuation-corrected reflectivity measurements by using a nearby radar as opposed to the traditional use of rain gauge or disdrometer measurements. The results showed that the the adaptive attenuation correction techniques have a higher performance than the nonadaptive ones when comparing the measured and computed Φ_DP profiles and also when comparing with reflectivity measurements from a nearby radar. The results also showed that the difference in the performance of the adaptive attenuation correction algorithms is minimal and optimizing a single parameter (e.g., α in the BRI algorithm) rather than three unknown parameters (e.g., a, b, and α in the AHB or AFV algorithms) is a more robust procedure.