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BNF DSD C-Band Radar Relationships: R-Z, R-k, and R-A

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BNF DSD C-Band Radar Relationships: R-Z, R-k, and R-A


Overview

This notebook derives empirical power-law relationships between radar observables and rain rate (R) using Drop Size Distribution (DSD) data from the ARM LDQUANTS and VDISQUANTS products at BNF sites M1 and S30.

Rainfall causes attenuation of radar signals, particularly at higher frequencies, and can also be used for rainfall estimation. The LDQUANTS and VDISQUANTS are disdrometer-based ARM products that characterize DSD. We want to derive optimized radar relationships over BNF for more accurate rainfall estimation compared to using generalized or default relationships.

The three C-band relationships derived are:

  1. R-Z: Rain rate (R) from reflectivity factor (Z), R = a * Z^b (Complete range)

  2. R-k: Rain rate (R) from specific attenuation (k), R = a * k^b (Rainrate >= 1mm/hr)

  3. R-A: Rain rate (R) from specific differential attenuation (A), R = a * A^b (Rainrate >= 0.1 mm/hr)

Coefficients are computed per instrument/site and mean relationship for all three sites/instruments: M1 Laser Disdrometer (LD), M1 Video Disdrometer (VDIS), and S30 Laser Disdrometer (LD).

Prerequisites

ConceptsImportanceNotes
Linear RegressionNecessary
Radar ReflectivityNecessary
Understanding of NetCDFHelpfulFamiliarity with metadata structure
  • Time to learn: 60 min.

  • System requirements:

    • xarray, numpy, matplotlib, glob


Imports

Load Datasets

A helper constructs the glob pattern from a base directory and datastream name, prints the file count, and returns an xarray dataset.

bnfldquantsM1.c1: 523 files
bnfvdisquantsM1.c1: 375 files
bnfldquantsS30.c1: 534 files

Rain rate variable: rain_rate

Power-Law Fitting Function

A single function handles all relationship types via log-log linear regression (R = a · Y^b), where Y is the radar variable (Z, k, or A).
Set is_dbz=True for reflectivity to convert dBZ → linear Z units before fitting; k and A are already in linear units.

Per-relationship filtering criteria applied before fitting:

  • R-Z: reflectivity filtered to dBZ ≥ 0 (0 to max dBZ range); no rain rate threshold

  • R-k: only samples with R ≥ 1 mm/hr (KDP is unreliable in light rain)

  • R-A: only samples with R > 0.1 mm/hr

Compute R-Z, R-k, and R-A Relationships

Iterate over all sites and radar variables to fit each power-law (R = a · Y^b). Coefficients are stored in df_results once and reused for display and plotting — no redundant fitting calls downstream.

Coefficient Summary Table

Print all fitted coefficients across sites and relationships.

                 Site Relationship          a        b     N
  M1 - LD Disdrometer          R-Z   0.035419 0.640732 37295
  M1 - LD Disdrometer          R-k  20.563716 0.676618 18775
  M1 - LD Disdrometer          R-A 331.745723 0.596268 37467
M1 - VDIS Disdrometer          R-Z   0.026688 0.663554 24808
M1 - VDIS Disdrometer          R-k  19.455298 0.681032 10393
M1 - VDIS Disdrometer          R-A 378.634346 0.628594 24609
 S30 - LD Disdrometer          R-Z   0.033040 0.636505 34016
 S30 - LD Disdrometer          R-k  19.149218 0.678453 15516
 S30 - LD Disdrometer          R-A 283.675162 0.590253 33944

Scatter Plots with Fitted Power-Law Curves

One scatter plot per site per relationship, with radar variable on the x-axis and rain rate (R) on the y-axis.

<Figure size 1500x1400 with 9 Axes>

Combined Coefficients — All Instruments and Sites

Pool data from all three instruments and sites into a single array to derive best-estimate power-law coefficients for each relationship. Append to df_results for a complete comparison table.

                 Site Relationship          a        b     N
  M1 - LD Disdrometer          R-Z   0.035419 0.640732 37295
  M1 - LD Disdrometer          R-k  20.563716 0.676618 18775
  M1 - LD Disdrometer          R-A 331.745723 0.596268 37467
M1 - VDIS Disdrometer          R-Z   0.026688 0.663554 24808
M1 - VDIS Disdrometer          R-k  19.455298 0.681032 10393
M1 - VDIS Disdrometer          R-A 378.634346 0.628594 24609
 S30 - LD Disdrometer          R-Z   0.033040 0.636505 34016
 S30 - LD Disdrometer          R-k  19.149218 0.678453 15516
 S30 - LD Disdrometer          R-A 283.675162 0.590253 33944
         All Combined          R-Z   0.031705 0.647483 96119
         All Combined          R-k  19.833667 0.678858 44684
         All Combined          R-A 333.234228 0.605235 96020