Image Processing of Weather Radar Reflectivity Data: Should It be Done in Z or dBZ?

Abstract

It appears to be a common belief that processing, such as interpolation, clustering or smoothing, of weather radar reflectivity fields ought to be carried out on the reflectivity factor (Z) and not on its logarithm (dBZ). It is demonstrated here by means of a statistical study on a large dataset that, contrary to common belief, processing in dBZ is better for such applications.