Evaluation of a Ku-band radar hydrometeor classifier by comparison with S-band radar and aircraft data

Compared to traditional single-polarization radar, dual-polarization radar can provide more information about different hydrometeor sizes, shapes and their distribution. However, most of the previous studies were devoted to S or C band frequencies since they are standard operating frequencies in many countries. In this paper, we demonstrate the application of Ku-band dual-polarization radar for hydrometeor identification. The derived hydrometeor types are cross compared with collocated Sband products and images collected by the airborne probe. Results show that the Ku-band radar has great potential for characterization of precipitation microphysics and identifying different hydrometeor phases.