Publications related to Tornado debris signature

Wind Transport of Snow Impacts Ka- and Ku-band Radar Signatures on Arctic Sea Ice

Marc Schneebeli Zeugin, David Nicholas Wagner

Wind transport alters the snow topography and microstructure on sea ice through snow redistribution controlled by deposition and erosion. The impact of these processes on radar signatures is poorly understood. Here, we examine the effects of snow redistrib ...

2023

Identification of snowfall microphysical processes from Eulerian vertical gradients of polarimetric radar variables

Alexis Berne, Josué Etienne Gehring, Etienne Gabriel Henri Vignon, Noémie Planat

Polarimetric radar systems are commonly used to study the microphysics of precipitation. While they offer continuous measurements with a large spatial coverage, retrieving information about the microphysical processes that govern the evolution of snowfall ...

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH2021

A Characterisation of Alpine Mesocyclone Occurrence

Alexis Berne, Marco Gabella, Monika Feldmann, Urs Martin Germann

This work presents a characterisation of mesocyclone occurrence and frequency in the Alpine region, as observed from the Swiss operational radar network; 5 years of radar data are processed with a thunderstorm detection and tracking algorithm and subsequen ...

2021

Dynamic Differential Reflectivity Calibration Using Vertical Profiles in Rain and Snow

Alexis Berne, Alfonso Ferrone

The accuracy required for a correct interpretation of differential reflectivity (ZDR) is typically estimated to be between 0.1 and 0.2 dB. This is achieved through calibration, defined as the identification of the constant or time-varying offset to be subt ...

2020

Learning about the vertical structure of radar reflectivity using hydrometeor classes and neural networks in the Swiss Alps

Alexis Berne, Floortje Elisabeth Maria Van den Heuvel, Marco Gabella, Urs Martin Germann

The use of radar for precipitation measurement in mountainous regions is complicated by many factors, especially beam shielding by terrain features, which, for example, reduces the visibility of the shallow precipitation systems during the cold season. Whe ...

2020

Microphysics and dynamics of snowfall associated with a warm conveyor belt over Korea

Alexis Berne, Josué Etienne Gehring, Nikola Besic, Etienne Gabriel Henri Vignon, Nicolas Jean François Jullien

On 28 February 2018, 57mm of precipitation associated with a warm conveyor belt (WCB) fell within 21 h over South Korea. To investigate how the large-scale circulation influenced the microphysics of this intense precipitation event, we used radar measureme ...

Copernicus Publications2020

Statistical analysis of the spatial and temporal variability of polarimetric weather radar signals in the Alps

Floortje Elisabeth Maria Van den Heuvel

The accurate estimation of precipitation quantities arriving at the ground in complex terrain such as the Alps is complicated by many factors. The orography interacts with atmospheric flow and thus influences the spatial and temporal distribution as well a ...

EPFL2019

Polarimetric radar characteristics of lightning initiation and propagating channels

Marcos Rubinstein, Antonio Sunjerga, Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Mohammad Azadifar, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Jacopo Grazioli, Nikola Besic, Urs Martin Germann

In this paper we present an analysis of a large dataset of lightning and polarimetric weather radar data collected in the course of a lightning measurement campaign that took place in the summer of 2017 in the area surrounding Säntis, in the northeastern p ...

2019

Unraveling hydrometeor mixtures in polarimetric radar measurements

Alexis Berne, Jacopo Grazioli, Josué Etienne Gehring, Nikola Besic, Marco Gabella, Christophe Praz, Urs Martin Germann

Radar-based hydrometeor classification typically comes down to determining the dominant type of hydrometeor populating a given radar sampling volume. In this paper we address the subsequent problem of inferring the secondary hydrometeor types present in a ...

Copernicus GmbH2018

Characterisation of the melting layer variability in an Alpine valley based on polarimetric X-band radar scans

Alexis Berne, Floortje Elisabeth Maria Van den Heuvel, Marco Gabella, Urs Martin Germann

The melting layer designates the transition region from solid to liquid precipitation, and is a typical feature of the vertical structure of stratiform precipitation. As it is characterised by a well-known signature in polarimetric radar variables, it can ...

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH2018

From model to radar variables: a new forward polarimetric radar operator for COSMO

Alexis Berne, Daniel Wolfensberger

In this work, a new forward polarimetric radar operator for the COSMO numerical weather prediction (NWP) model is proposed. This operator is able to simulate measurements of radar reflectivity at horizontal polarization, differential reflectivity as well a ...

Copernicus GmbH2018

A polarimetric radar operator to evaluate precipitation from the COSMO atmospheric model

Daniel Wolfensberger

Weather radars provide real-time measurements of precipitation at a high temporal and spatial resolution and over a large domain. A drawback, however, it that these measurements are indirect and require careful interpretation to yield relevant information ...

EPFL2018

Variations in Snow Crystal Riming and ZDR: A Case Analysis

Alexis Berne, Christophe Praz

A case study in terms of variations in differential reflectivity Z(DR) observed at X band and snow crystal riming is presented for a light-snow event that occurred near Greeley, Colorado, on 26-27 November 2015. In the early portion of the event, Z(DR) val ...

2018

Retrieval of the raindrop size distribution from polarimetric radar data using double-moment normalisation

Alexis Berne, Timothy Hugh Raupach

A new technique for estimating the raindrop size distribution (DSD) from polarimetric radar data is proposed. Two statistical moments of the DSD are estimated from polarimetric variables, and the DSD is reconstructed using a double-moment normalisation. Th ...

Copernicus GmbH2017

Measurements of precipitation in Dumont d'Urville, Adelie Land, East Antarctica

Alexis Berne, Jacopo Grazioli

The first results of a campaign of intensive observation of precipitation in Dumont d'Urville, Antarctica, are presented. Several instruments collected data from November 2015 to February 2016 or longer, including a polarimetric radar (MXPol), a Micro Rain ...

Copernicus GmbH2017

Detection and characterization of the melting layer based on polarimetric radar scans

Alexis Berne, Daniel Wolfensberger, Danny Eddy Scipion Castillo

Stratiform rain situations are generally associated with the presence of a melting layer characterized by a strong signature in polarimetric radar variables. This layer is an important feature as it indicates the transition from solid to liquid precipitati ...

Wiley-Blackwell2016

Variability of the raindrop size distribution across scales in Mediterranean rainfall : characterisation and stochastic simulation

Timothy Hugh Raupach

Measurement of rain is made difficult by the high variability of the precipitation process, down to raindrop scale. Point measurements are generally accurate, but their lack of spatial representativeness is a significant limitation. Weather radars indirect ...

EPFL2016

Hydrometeor classification from polarimetric radar measurements: a clustering approach

Alexis Berne, Devis Tuia, Jacopo Grazioli

A data-driven approach to the classification of hydrometeors from measurements collected with polarimetric weather radars is proposed. In a first step, the optimal number of hydrometeor classes (nopt) that can be reliably identified from a large set of pol ...

Copernicus Gesellschaft Mbh2015

Polarimetric weather radar : from signal processing to microphysical retrievals

Jacopo Grazioli

Accurate modelling of liquid, solid and mixed-phase precipitation requires a thorough understanding of phenomena occurring at various spatial and temporal scales. At the smallest scales, precipitation microphysics defines all the processes occurring at the ...

EPFL2015

Polarimetric radar and in situ observations of riming and snowfall microphysics during CLACE 2014

Alexis Berne, Jacopo Grazioli, Luca Panziera

This study investigates the microphysics of winter alpine snowfall occurring in mixed-phase clouds in an inner-Alpine valley during January and February 2014. The available observations include high-resolution polarimetric radar and in situ measurements of ...

Copernicus Publications2015