Abstract
The single polarization C-Band weather radar network of the Meteorological Service of Catalonia covers the entire region (32,000 km2), which allows it to apply a series of corrections that improve preliminary estimations of the rainfall field (hourly and daily). In addition, an automatic re-processing using automatic weather stations helps to incorporate ground-based information. The last process of the quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) is running the end-product again eight days later, when the data have been reviewed and corrected in the case of detecting anomalies in the radar or gauge data. These corrections are applied operationally, with the fields generated and stored automatically. The QPE fields are generated in the GeoTIFF format, allowing easy use with multiple applications and simplifying processes such as quality control. In this way, the analysis of a 10 year period of GeoTIFF QPE daily data compared with ground rainfall values is introduced. The results help to understand different points regarding the functioning of the network such as the dependance on the type of precipitation and the seasonality. In addition, the description of a heavy rainfall episode (22 October 2019) shows the variations and improvements in the different products. The main conclusions refer to how using GeoTIFF combined with point data (rain gauges), it is possible to ensure simple but effective quality control of an operational radar network.
Highlights
The main issue in monitoring and analyzing real-time flood events is having the required instrumentation to obtain enough quantitative observations [1]
The choice of this product avoids false anomalies caused by the application of corrections that can be minimized when a radar functions poorly, at least for a period
The use of the GeoTIFF format allowed for real-time procedures to be generated for analysis of the quality of Quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) data from each radar on the XRAD network
Summary
The main issue in monitoring and analyzing real-time flood events is having the required instrumentation to obtain enough quantitative observations [1]. The possibility of having good coverage of precipitation measurements is shown as the better solution, in the sense that they are the primary source of information to describe the event, and, in addition, they can provide the main input for hydrological modeling [2]. One of the best-known hypotheses in hydrometeorology is that rain gauges provide the true ground-based precipitation at a certain point (or “ground truth”) [3]. They cannot always be representative of large areas surrounding them, mainly in the case of convective or orography precipitation types. Rain gauges can be subject to large errors that can affect real measurements [4]. Quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) fields from radars usually show good qualitative results (the shape of the precipitation structure) but bad quantitative values (compared to rain gauges)
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