Abstract
Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) on the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) core satellite started its precipitation measurement in March 2014, and the DPR standard products are available in public since September 2014. DPR consists of two radars, KuPR (13.6GHz) and KaPR (35.5GHz), and the DPR standard product consists of KuPR single-frequency product, KaPR single-frequency product, and dual-frequency product. Drop size distribution (DSD) and precipitation rates estimated by dual-frequency product are expected to be better than those by single-frequency product. However, the dual-frequency product has not been validated well. In this study, DSD and precipitation rate estimates by the dual-frequency method are compared with those in KuPR single-frequency product with surface reference technique. They are not agreed well partly because attenuation correction is not well applied for KaPR. For heavy precipitation, as attenuation correction is difficult, dual-frequency method may not be expected to work well, but the dual-frequency method should be applied mainly for weak and medium precipitation.
