Understanding Severe Weather Systems Using Doppler and Polarisation Radar

With increasing population, the impact of severe weather on socioeconomic systems is increasing worldwide. This is underlined by spectacular incidences of flash floods, hurricanes, and hail events with their impact on air and ground based transportation systems or big events like the Olympic games (Parker, 2000; Pielke and Pielke, 1999). Further, the interaction with the global climate system, with vertical exchange of trace gases by deep convective systems, on one side, and the increased variability of severe weather as a result of global warming, on the other side, is becoming more and more a focus of research. All these topics call for a better understanding of severe weather systems with the goal of improving forecasts.