An Application of Reflectivity Climatology in Constructing Radar Hybrid Scans over Complex Terrain

Three years’ worth of radar reflectivity data from four radars in an area of complex terrain (Taiwan) from 2005 to 2007 were analyzed and a reflectivity climatology was developed. The climatology was applied in the construction of new hybrid scans to minimize the impacts of ground clutter and beam blockages. The reflectivity climatology showed significant seasonal variations and captured distributions of ground/sea clutters, beam blockages, and anomalous propagations in addition to precipitation systems in the radar domains. By comparing the reflectivity climatology with gauge observations, it was found that 15 (20) dBZ was a good approximation for rain/no-rain segregation during cool (warm) seasons. Comparisons between the standard (i.e., based on terrain and scan strategies only with the assumption of standard propagations) and nonstandard (i.e., standard plus the clutter and blockage mitigation using the reflectivity climatology) hybrid scans showed that the former did not accurately reflect the clutter and blockage distributions in the real atmosphere. The application of the reflectivity climatology was shown to significantly reduce the impacts of clutter and blockages and provided improved radar quantitative precipitation estimates (QPEs) in the complex terrain.