Supervisor : Dr Alessandro Battaglia (ab474@le.ac.uk)

Details of Project

CloudSat, launched in April 2006, paved the way to space-borne millimetre radars as unique precipitation detectors, suited for better understanding the transition between non-precipitating and precipitating clouds. In addition to ranging and characterising water

Vertical reflectivity profile measured by the 94 GHz CloudSat radar passing over hurricane Billy on the 25th Dec, 2008. Note the eye of the hurricane just before 06:12:00 UTC

and ice clouds (e.g. see hurricane Billy detailed vertical structure in the picture), these radars detect drizzle, light rain and snowfall, thus offering a unique and more holistic view of the water cycle in action. CloudSat-based precipitation products are now routinely produced.

Visible image of the same system with the ground track of the CloudSat satellite in red

The PhD student will exploit these products to build up a precipitation climatology focusing at mid and high latitudes with the intent of validating and assessing performances of numerical weather prediction models. This will require a rigorous assessment of the errors involved in CloudSat precipitation products.  The PhD student will also investigate the potential of the additional Doppler capabilities of the 94 GHz EarthCARE radar (expected to fly in 2014) for improving the understanding of the precipitation dynamics and for further constraining the precipitation retrieval.