9612519 Rutledge The U.S. Weather Research Program (USWRP) is an interagency activity designed to perform and implement the research necessary to improve the delivery of weather services to the nation. Under this Program, the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are jointly evaluating and supporting weather research of high priority to the USWRP. This proposal seeks support for participation in initial research efforts of the U.S. Weather Research Program. The research will center on improving estimates of precipitation amounts and type (hydrometeor identification) from the NEXRAD (Next Generation of Radar) WSR-88D radar network. The Principal Investigators will employ research-quality polarimetric radars to improve radar derived precipitation estimates, as well as in evaluating NEXRAD algorithms for hydrometeor identification. Two instrumented mobile vans, one of them equipped with the Austrian two dimensional video disdrometer, and the other with capacitance-type rain gage, electronic hail sensor and NCAR hail catcher net (for manual collection) will be deployed for in situ verification. Since current radar derived precipitation estimates are virtually ineffective beyond ranges of 100 km or so, the researchers will develop statistically-based techniques for estimating precipitation at such longer ranges (e.g., cumulative distribution function matching or neural network techniques). Two pilot field programs are planned, one for the summer of 1996, and the second for the winter of 1996-97. A third field program is planned for the summer of 1998 in Oklahoma using the National Severe Storm Laboratory's polarimetric upgraded prototype WSR-88D. This research will have an immediate impact on quantitative precipitation forecasting by providing more robust information on precipitation amounts and type. ***
