Characterization of S-band dual-polarized radar data for the convective rain melting layer detection in a tropical region

In the tropical region, convective rain is a dominant rain event. However, very little information is known about the convective rain melting layer. In this paper, S-band dual-polarized radar data is studied in order to identify both the stratiform and convective rain melting layers in the tropical region, with a focus on the convective events. By studying and analyzing the above-mentioned two types of rain events, amongst three radar measurements of reflectivity ( Z ), differential reflectivity ( ZDR ), and cross correlation coefficient ( ρHV ), the latter one is the best indicator for convective rain melting layer detection. From two years (2014 and 2015) of radar and radiosonde observations, 13 convective rain melting layers are identified with available 0 °C isothermal heights which are derived from radiosonde vertical profiles. By comparing the melting layer top heights with the corresponding 0 °C isothermal heights, it is found that for convective rain events, the threshold to detect melting layer should be modified to ρHV=0.95 for the tropical region. The melting layer top and bottom heights are then estimated using the proposed threshold, and it is observed from this study that the thickness of convective rain melting layer is around 2 times that of stratiform rain melting layer which is detected by using the conventional ρHV=0.97 .Published versio