SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS ON OBSERVATIONAL ERRORS OF CLOUD INTENSITY AND STRUCTURE WITH TRMM PR AND GROUND-BASED RADAR^*

In order to explain theoretically the observational biases of reflectivity and structure of precipitation systems by TRMM Precipitation Radar (TRMM PR) and ground-based radar,the effects of wavelengths,incident direction of radar waves and radar beam width on the reflectivity observation are simulated.The results show that the error due to the different wavelength and incident direction of radar wave is within 2.0 dB,TRMM PR can observe a larger reflectivity than ground-based radar in echo center.TRMM PR smoothes the cloud structure,overestimates and underestimates reflectivity by 3-5 dB in strong and week echo areas,respectively.Beam width and long distance from TRMM PR to target cause it to overestimate the large echo area and area integrated rainfall amount,and to underestimate the averaged refleetivity.The theoretical results above can only explain part of observational facts,meaning that the comparison of observation results between TRMM PR and ground-based radar is complicated,the attenuation of radar wave within precipitation area is the main factor to affect the observed result.