Dimension statistics of rain cell cores and associated rain rate isopleths derived from radar measurements in the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States

Employing a multi-year radar database of precipitation in a mid-Atlantic coast region, the authors have characterized rain cell size statistics. The measurements were made with a high resolution, high power radar in which equicircle diameter contours of resolutions of 1 km and greater were identified out to ranges of 100 km from the radar. The rain cell was constructed by its core intensity isopleth and a family of enveloping contours having defined rain rate intervals in the regions between them. The isopleth statistics were extracted from a database of cores with rain level number 7 (18-24 mm/h) and greater