Characterizing precipitation in convective cloud regimes in the trades with the polarimetric C-band radar POLDIRAD

Low-level clouds in the trade regions play an important role in the Earth’s climate system since they have a considerable influence on the Earth’s radiation budget. However, the understanding of the coupling between cloud dynamics, cloud microphysics, and mesoscale organization is limited. This results in a large uncertainty in current climate predictions. Despite the importance, observations in these regions are limited. Geostationary satellites cannot provide high resolution three-dimensional details of clouds and precipitation. Polar orbiting satellites like the A-Train satellites Cloudsat and Calipso or the upcoming EarthCARE satellite do provide detailed profiles of cloud properties, but the temporal evolution cannot be observed. On the other hand, long range weather radar observations can provide both, high spatial and temporal observations, however not many weather radar do cover the trades.

During the Eurec4a campaign DLRs C-band polarimetric weather radar POLDIRAD was installed on the island of Barbados. The scope of the radar measurements is manifold:

- POLDIRAD will provide high resolution observations of the different mesoscale cloud patterns as observed from satellites: Flowers, Gravel, Fish, and Sugar. Will the mesoscale organization have an influence on observable microphysical properties?

- POLDIRAD will put the detailed measurements by aircraft (in situ and remote sensing) into a greater context. How are the aircraft measurements related to the spatial distribution of the precipitation pattern? How are the aircraft measurements related to the temporal evolution of the precipitation pattern?

- POLDIRAD will put the observed profiles of clouds and precipitation at the Barbados Cloud Observatory BCO at Deebles Point into a greater context. How are the profile measurements related to the spatial distribution of the precipitation pattern? How are the profile measurements related to the temporal evolution of the precipitation pattern?