On the statistics of differential phases in C-band weather radar

Abstract. Differential phases open a new parameter in polarimetric weather radar data analysis. In polarimetric S-matrices measured at the linear polarisation bases (vertical and horizontal) there exist basically three differential phases namely the differential propagation phase and two co-to-crosspolar phases. In this paper we shall investigate the statistics of differential propagation phase and co-to-crosspolar phases in weather radar data recorded with the C-band weather radar of DLR, Wessling.