Enhancing radar estimates of precipitation over complex terrain using information derived from an orographic precipitation model

SummaryThe objective of this paper is to present a radar-based quantitative precipitation estimation algorithm and assess its quality over the complex terrain of western Iceland. The proposed scheme deals with the treatment of beam blockage, anomalous propagation, vertical profile of reflectivity and includes a radar adjustment technique compensating for range, orographic effects and variations in the Z–RZ–R relationship. The quality of the estimated precipitation is remarkably enhanced after post-processing and in reasonably good agreement with what is known about the spatial distribution of precipitation in the studied area from both rain gauge observations and a gridded dataset derived from an orographic precipitation model. The results suggest that this methodology offers a credible solution to obtain an estimate of the distribution of precipitation in mountainous terrain and appears to be of practical value to meteorologists and hydrologists.