Real-time areal precipitation determination from radar by means of statistical objective analysis

SummaryPrecipitation measurement by radar allows for areal rainfall determination with a high spatial and temporal resolution. However, hydrological applications require an accuracy of the precipitation quantification which cannot be obtained by today’s weather radar devices. The quality of the radar-derived precipitation can be significantly improved with the aid of ground measurements. In this paper, a complete processing pipeline for real-time radar precipitation determination using a modified statistical objective analysis method is presented. Thereby, several additional algorithms, such as a dynamical use of Z–R relationships, a bias correction and an advection correction scheme are employed. The performance of the algorithms is tested for several case studies. For an error analysis, an eight months data set of X-band radar scans and rain gauge precipitation measurements is used. We show a reduction in the radar–rain gauge RMS difference of up to 59% for the optimal combination of the different algorithms.