» 2.0 Location of Instruments

This photo shows several instruments deployed at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology Research Center (BMRC) wind profiler site located near Darwin, Australia (12.443 S, 130.956 E).

1. A 920-MHz wind profiler
2. Two Joss-Waldvogel disdrometers
3. Ttwo rain gauges
4. A 2835-MHz vertically-pointing profiler

Project Description:

Vertically-pointing radars provide information on the vertical structure of precipitating cloud systems as they pass directly overhead. Using the measured Doppler velocity information, these observations are converted into estimates of the number and size of raindrops falling in the rain.
These raindrop size distributions (DSDs) provide insight into the microphysical processes and dynamics occurring within the precipitating cloud system.

This research page describes the observations and DSD estimates for a major field campaign held near Darwin, Australia, called the Tropical Western Pacific – International Cloud Experiment (TWP-ICE). TWP-ICE was designed to collect in-situ and remote-sensing measurements of clouds, precipitation, and meteorological variables from the ground to the lower stratosphere for a six week period in January and February 2006. The vertically-pointing profiling radar observations were collected for the whole wet season from November 2005 through March 2006. The collected observations and DSD estimates are provided through this research page.

Sponsors

This research was sponsored in part by the NASA Precipitation Measurement Mission (PMM) program and in part by the NOAA Hydrometeorological Testbed (HMT) program.