Characteristics of Chaff Echoes Observed by X-band Dual Polarization Radar

To effectively remove chaff echoes, which are often misidentified as precipitation echoes on weather radars, this study examines the relationship between the radar reflectivity and each of dual polarimetric parameters. The dual polarimetric parameters are collected only for the echo areas identified as chaff echoes on the NIMR X-band dual polarization radar. Overall, the polarimetric parameters (i.e., reflectivity, differential reflectivity, cross correlation coefficient, standard deviation of differential reflectivity and specific differential phase) for chaff echoes have a wider range of values than those for precipitation echoes and the chaff filaments tend to be horizontally oriented to radar beams. There appears to be a considerable overlap in the cross correlation coefficient range of chaff and precipitation echoes since some precipitation echoes have cross correlation coefficient lower than 0.8. Therefore, although the cross correlation coefficient is known to be a good variable in identifying and separating chaff echoes from precipitation echoes, it is suggested that additional care should be taken when using the cross correlation coefficient solely in removing chaff echoes.