Effect of Range on Apparent Height and Frequency of High-Altitude Radar Precipitation Echoes

A. J. KANTOR Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, Bedford, Mass.

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D. D. GRANTHAM Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, Bedford, Mass.

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748MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEWVol. 98, No. 10suspicion that contrails may be influencing the weatherand that it is important to find out if they are.In conclusion, it should be stated that if contrails areaffecting the weather it is not necessarily for the worse,although if there is any considerable change it is sure tomake someone unhappy. The Russians might well bepleased with an ice-free Arctic Ocean; but if it leads to amajor glaciation in central Canada, it is unlikely that theCanadians and Americans would regard it as favorable.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe writer wishes to acknowledge many discussions with Dr.Sue Ann Bowling whose contributions have been so significant asto nearly merit listing as a coauthor. The work upon which keypoints in this presentation are based was supported by GrantsAPOO 449-01, APOO 440-02, and APO 00449-03 from the NationalCenter of Air Pollution Control, Public Health Service, Departmentof Health, Education, and Welfare. This work was partially sup-ported by Grant GA-19475, Atmospheric Sciences Section, Na-tional Science Foundation.REFERENCESAppleman, Herbert S., "The Formation of Exhaust CondensationTrails by Jet Aircraft," Bulletin of the American MeteorologicalSociety, Vol. 34, No. 1, Jan. 1953, pp. 14-20.Blanchard, D. C., "A Verification of the Bally-Dorsey Theory ofSpicule Formation on Sleet Pellets,'' Journal of Meteorology,Braham, Roscoe R., Jr., and Spyers-Duran, Paul A., "Survival ofCirrus Crystals in Clear Air," JournaE of Applied Meteorology,Vol. 6, No. 6, Dec. 1967, pp. 1053-1061.Fletcher, J. O., "The Heat Budget of the Arctic Basin and Its Rela-tion to Climate,'' Report R-444-PR, The Rand Corporation,Santa Monica, Calif., Oct. 1965, 179 pp.Fletcher, J. O., "Managing Climatic Resources," Paper P-4000-1,The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif., Mar. 1969, 27 pp.Huffman, Paul J., "Size Distribution of Ice Fog Particles," M.S.thesis, University of Alaska, College, Alaska, 1968, 93 pp.Livingston, W. C., "Aircraft and Cloud Formation," Weather,Vol. 24, No. 2, Feb. 1969, pp. 56-61.Ohtake, Takeshi, "Alaskan Ice Fog," Proceedings of the Znterna-tional Conference on Low Temperature, Sapporo, Japan, August 14-19, 1966, Hakkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, 1967, pp.105-118.Vol. 8, NO. 4, Aug. 1951, pp. 268-269.Reinking, Roger F., "Insolation Reduction by Contrails," Weather,Vol. 23, No. 4, Apr. 1968, pp. 171-173.Schaefer, Vincent J., "The Inadvertent Modification of the Atmos-phere by Air Pollution," Bulletin of the American MeteorologicalSociety, Vol. 50, No. 4, Apr. 1969, pp. 199-206.Thuman, William C., and Robinson, Elmer, "Studies of AlaskanIce-Fog Particles," Journal of Meteorology, Vol. 11, No. 2, Apr.1954, pp. 151-156.[Received December 22, 1969; revised March 23, 19701CORRESPONDENCEUDC 551.501.81:551.508.85:621.396.969.181.3Effect of Range on Apparent Height and Frequency of High-Altitude Radar Precipitation Echoes A. J. KANTOR and D. D. GRANTHAMAir Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, Bedford, Moss.As coauthors of the captioned Monthly Weather Rewiewarticle (Vol. 97, No. 6, June 1969, pp. 429-431), wewelcome this opportunity to restate some of our findingsso that possible misinterpretation by interested readersmay be avoided.Our conclusion concerning echo altitude and frequencyof occurrence due to range effects should state that thenet or resulting errors due to range are insignificantrather than the errors are insignificant. The individualerrors can be substantial, as mentioned in our paper, andas pointed out in a private communication from Dr.D. Atlas, Director of the Laboratory for AtmosphericProbing at the University of Chicago. We agree, forexample, that there is a balancing effect between theincreasing width of the beam with range that tends toincrease the altitude of reported tops and the beam-widthaveraging or filling effect that decreases the averagereflectivity of the top region with range. Also, heighterrors obviously depend on reflectivity and its heightprofile, so that, as Dr. Atlas emphasizes, serious over-estimates of precipitation echo tops may occur when theedges or side lobes of the beam detect sufficient reflectivityfrom below. That such false echoes may occasionallyenter the records despite operational procedures andprofessional manpower as used in the WSR-57 networkunderscores the fact that reflectivity is a vital factor inradar climatology of storm tops.

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