Convectional Radar - key concepts

• conceptually, how does a pulsed radar system work?
• What are commom wavelengths for meteorological radars?
• how does one determine the unambiguous range for a radar? How can it be changed to eliminate second trip echoes?
• What are the signatures of second trip echoes?
• What are the two most common scanning strategies? What are they useful for?
• How is the radar reflectivity scale defined? What are VIP levels?
• What are the important terms/processes that are in the radar equation for a point target?
• What are side lobes and what problems to they present? Why are they generated?
• How can you reduce side lobe contamination?
• What does the 3-D pulse volume look like?
• How are the radial and azimuthal resolutions determined?
• What assumptions are made in the distributed targets case?
• How is Pr dependent on R for the distributed targets case? Why is it different than for the point target radar equation?
• How are the radar reflectivitiy and radar reflectivity factor defined?
• How are the complex dielectric factors different for ice and water?

• What is the "equivalent radar reflectivity factor"?
• When will Z = Ze? when will Z not equal Ze?
• What assumptions were made in the derivation of the radar equation?
• how is the dBZe scale defined?
• How is the transmitted radiation attenuated?
• How does attenuation depend on wavelength?
• When estimating rainfall rate, what two parameters does the radar reflectivity factor depend upon?
• What common drop size distrubution is assumed? What does it look like?
• How is the rainfall rate determined from the radar reflectivity factor?
• How and why is a bright band generated?
• What is ZDR? How can this field provide information about the type of backscatterer?
• What are the two common "clear-air" backscattering mechanisms? What is the dependence of the radar reflectivity on wavelength for each mechanism?
• How are thinlines likely created?
• What is AP?
• How is a hail spike generated?