Title:  Theoretical Performance Bounds for Estimation of Drop Size Distribution Parameters and Rain Rate

Committee:

Dr. Aaron Lanterman, ECE, Chair , Advisor

Dr. Douglas Williams, ECE

Dr. Mark Richards, ECE

Dr. Gregory Durgin, ECE

Dr. Branislav Vidakovic, BME

Abstract: 

Radar is an indispensable tool in the observation, analysis, and prediction of weather.  The Weather Surveillance Radar 1988-Doppler (WSR-88D) is the primary source of weather-radar data in the United States (U.S.), providing dual-polarimetric (dual-pol) radar measurements for the inference of meteorological phenomena.  The objective of this dissertation is to derive fundamental performance bounds for the variance of any unbiased estimator of the drop size distribution (DSD) parameters of rain, given the dual-pol measurements recorded by operational weather radars, e.g., the WSR-88D.  This dissertation further establishes similar bounds for the estimation of rain rate and liquid water content (LWC).