The activities related to the COSMO NWP model at LTE deal with the comparison of simulations from the COSMO numerical weather prediction model with observations from various types of radars. To this end, a forward radar operator has been developed, which is able to simulate dual-polarization and Doppler observations for both ground and airborne radars from the state of the atmosphere simulated by the COSMO model (e.g. Pressure, temperature, concentrations of snow, rain, graupel and ice). The radar operator takes into account most physical effects affecting the propagation of the radar beam and the scattering of the hydrometeors (e.g. atmospheric refraction, beam-broadening, antenna power density…). Evaluation of the operator has shown that while not being able to perfectly match the observed radar measurements, the operator is able to simulate realistic values of polarimetric radar variables with a good match on the event scale.
Measured GPM-DPR (left) and COSMO-simulated (right) Ku reflectivites fo a given overpass.
Collaborators involved: D. Wolfensberger.