CALCULATIONS OF ABSORPTION, ATTENUATION, AND BACKSCATTERING OF HAILSTONES AND THEIR POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS

The absorption, attenuation, and backscattering of hailstones with various structures are investigated by the model calculations of four kinds of spherical hailstones: pure ice spheres, liquid water-coated ice spheres, spongy ice-coated ice spheres, and all spongy ice spheres. All the results for the wavelength 5.56 cm, including the radar reflectivity factor, absorption factor, and attenuation factor of hailstones with different size distributions are given and discussed in this paper. The possible applications of these character-istics in radar monitoring of hailstones are also discussed. It is shown that in certain conditions, a micro-wave radiometer simultaneously operating with a radar will be helpful to the identification of the hail-bearing area. Finally, the possible influence of hailfall area on the accuracy of the measurements of the rainfall distribution by using a radar-radiometer is simply discussed.