Evaluating Reflectivity Quality of the New Airship-Borne Weather Radar Using the S-Band Ground-Based Weather Radar in China

This paper analyzes the reliability of the reflectivity data from the Ku-band airship-borne weather radar (AR) based on the observations of four precipitation processes using the AR and China's S-band new generation weather radar (CINRAD/SA) between 2022 and 2023. When observing relatively uniform precipitation, the standard deviation of the reflectivity data from the AR is consistently more than 80% lower than the theoretical 1dB. This indicates that the reflectivity data from the AR exhibits minimal fluctuations and satisfies the design requirements of the radar. Furthermore, when observing convective precipitation, the echo structures observed by the AR are generally consistent with those observed by CINRAD/SA. However, the AR has a higher range resolution, enabling it to capture more detailed precipitation structures. Lastly, the average deviation between the reflectivity data from the AR and the matching data from CINRAD/SA is less than 1dB, indicating good linear consistency. This suggests that the reflectivity data from the AR is reliable.