Examining the explosion effect of hail suppression operation using phased array radar observation data

During a hailstorm in Weining County, Bijie City, Guizhou Province, on July 27, 2022, the radar echo of a strong convective monomer rapidly changed after a hail suppression operation. Using high-spatiotemporal-resolution sector-scanning data at 12-s intervals from the X-band dual-polarization phased array radar, we analyzed macro and micro changes in the monomer before and after hail suppression. We inversely analyzed the three-dimensional wind field of the monomer using phased array radar data. Within one minute, the echo height, intensity, and vertically integrated liquid water content significantly decreased. The positive radial velocity column near the operation point broke, updraft velocity and area decreased, and downdraft velocity and area increased. In the explosion-affected area, strong echo samples rapidly decreased, weak echo samples increased, the number of hail particles rapidly decreased, and number of graupel particles increased. The cloud changed rapidly within minutes after the operation, not meeting the time requirement of the catalytic theory. It was affected by the explosion. The explosion broke up large particles near the explosion point and decreased their diameter, and the dynamic disturbance generated inhibited the strong convective internal updraft, suppressing convective cloud development. The results provide some observational evidence for the explosion hail suppression theory.