On the influence of glaciogenic seeding on the radar characteristics of hail clouds

Abstract

Abstract 40 hail and hail-hazardous clouds of various strengths were considered, which were seeded with the help of a glaciogenic agents in order to prevent and interrupt hail. An unseeded control cloud was matched for each seeded cloud. For this, the parameter dV35 was used – the volume of the radio echo of the cloud with a reflectivity of more than 35 dBZ above the level of zero isotherm. A cloud was considered to be a control cloud if at the time of the beginning of seeding and 10 minutes before that dV35 differs by no more than 15% from the same value of the seeded cloud. To assess the possible impact of seeding, the radar characteristics of pairs of seeded and control clouds were analyzed. It was found that in the seeded clouds the average, maximum and minimum values of the maximum reflectivity, the height of the upper boundary, the vertically integrated water content, the intensity of precipitation and dV35 are higher, and the height of the maximum reflectivity is slightly lower than the similar values of the control clouds.