Deciphering the signatures of convective rain cells using simultaneous
observations from C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar onboard EOS-4
satellite and GPM measurements
Abstract
Earth Observation Satellite (EOS)-04 launched on 14th
February 2022, carries a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) for
Agriculture, Forestry, Hydrology and Flood mapping applications. In this
paper, we have used C-band SAR images and near-simultaneous observations
from the Global Precipitation Measurements (GPM) to study the signatures
of multiple convective rain cells. The bright patches are found on
C-band SAR imagery, which depicts the information of hydrometeors such
as graupels or hails in the melting layer. For the first time,
unambiguously estimated the diameter of the convective core rain cells
from the C-band SAR backscattered signal and compared near-simultaneous
observations from GPM-GMI and Ku-band radar to confirm our findings. In
future, we will decipher between convective and stratiform rain
signatures on C-band SAR imagery and the possibility between C-band
backscattered signals with lighting events. Thus, the present study
demonstrates the potential of C-band SAR for the signatures of
convective rain cells.