Precip types based on return

Weather radar results, unlike reflections from a metal
surface, are determined by a resonance with a water
molecule. Frozen water is a crystal and the return is of a
lesser and different character, at least that is what I
remember Capt. David Gwinn telling me.



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...
| If you look at the radar plots at NOAA's site here
|
|
http://radar.weather.gov/radar_lite....oop=no&rid=cxx
|
| there is no prediction for precip type, just the value of
reflectivity
| is given.
|
| At Intellicast here,
|
|
http://www.intellicast.com/IcastPage...r&prodnav=none
|
| they go further and predict the precip type. My question,
does
| Intellicast use some temperature input to allow them to
differentiate
| between precip types?
|
| It just seems to me that reflectivity alone cannot
determine precip
| type accurately. For example, heavy snow and light rain
could have
| the same reflectivity, I'd expect, yet Intellicast clearly
has a
| distinction between the two.
|
| Ideas? Stan