Abstract
WHEN plane-polarized radiation is scattered by meteorological precipitation particles other than spheres, a component of the back-scattered energy is polarized at right-angles to the plane of polarization of the incident wave. This component will be referred to as the ‘cross-polarized’ component in this communication. Recent observations at Cambridge and Malvern have shown that the melting particles found just below the freezing-level, which give rise to the well-known radar ‘melting-band’1, produce back-scattered radiation with a greater cross-polarized component than that given by the rain below and the snow above the freezing-level. These observations have been made using separate aerials for transmission and reception, by comparing the echo received when the aerials have their planes of polarization parallel with that received when the plane of polarization for reception is at right-angles to that for transmission.
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References
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BROWNE, I., ROBINSON, N. Cross-polarization of the Radar Melting-Band. Nature 170, 1078–1079 (1952). https://doi.org/10.1038/1701078b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1701078b0
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