Operational Monitoring of Rainfall over the Arno River Basin Using Dual-Polarized Radar and Rain Gauges

Reflectivity (ZH) and differential reflectivity (ZDR) measurements collected by Polar 55C over the Arno River basin in Italy are presented. The applicability of dual-polarization (ZDR)-based rainfall algorithms at C band in an operational setting is studied in conjunction with a network of rain gaug...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of applied meteorology (1988) Vol. 35; no. 8; pp. 1221 - 1230
Main Authors Gorgucci, E., Scarchilli, G., Chandrasekar, V.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Boston, MA American Meteorological Society 01.08.1996
Subjects
Cumulative distribution functions
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
Meteorology
Radar
Radar data
Radar echoes
Rain
Rain gauges
Reflectance
River basins
Standard error
Storms
Water in the atmosphere (humidity, clouds, evaporation, precipitation)
Italy
Europe
Italy, Arno R
Arno River Basin, Italy
Reflectivity
Rain
Statistical analysis
Radar observation
Rain gauge
Algorithm
River basins
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ISSN0894-8763
1520-0450
1520-0450
DOI10.1175/1520-0450(1996)035<1221:OMOROT>2.0.CO;2

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Summary:Reflectivity (ZH) and differential reflectivity (ZDR) measurements collected by Polar 55C over the Arno River basin in Italy are presented. The applicability of dual-polarization (ZDR)-based rainfall algorithms at C band in an operational setting is studied in conjunction with a network of rain gauges. Conventional pointwise comparison of radar and rain gauge estimates of rainfall, as well as statistical comparison of dual-polarization radar and rain gauge data via probability matching procedure, are presented. Error structure of reflectivity rainfall Z–R relation, as well as ZDR-based algorithms, is evaluated as a function of spatial and temporal averaging. Pointwise comparison, as well as statistical evaluation based on cumulative distribution function (CDF) matching, are used to show that in an operational environment with excessive ground-clutter contamination and attenuation problems the dual-polarization-based rainfall algorithm performs better than any arbitrary Z–R relation. In addition, it is shown that a dual-polarization (ZDR) algorithm obtained matching the CDFs performs better than the best possible Z–R relation.
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ISSN:0894-8763
1520-0450
1520-0450
DOI:10.1175/1520-0450(1996)035<1221:OMOROT>2.0.CO;2