Simultaneous radar and in-situ aircraft based observations of convective storms: intercomparison study

During the summer of 1995 the CSU-CHILL multiparameter radar and an instrumented aircraft (T28 operated by the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology) were used to collect coordinated measurements over summer-storms in Northern Colorado. This paper presents comparison of the radar and aircraft data collected over a hailstorm which occurred on 22 June 1995. The predominant precipitation observed by T-28 was mixed phase consisting mainly of wet spherical hail and rain particles. The T-28 aircraft was equipped, for the first time, with a High Volume Particle Spectrometer, (HVPS), capable of collecting two dimensional images of hydrometeors encountered in the flight path. Simultaneously, the radar was collecting data in a PPI sector scan mode covering the elevations of the aircraft track. A comparative study of the multiparameter radar data and the in-situ aircraft observation for this storm is presented with the objective of interpreting multiparameter radar signatures.