Use of radar data for characterizing extreme precipitation at fine scales and short durations
Extreme precipitation is one of the most devastating forms of atmospheric phenomenon, causing severe damage worldwide, and is likely to intensify in strength and occurrence in a warming climate. This contribution gives an overview of the potential and challenges associated with using weather radar d...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab98b4 |
| _version_ | 1827869942007988224 |
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| author | Katharina Lengfeld Pierre-Emmanuel Kirstetter Hayley J Fowler Jingjing Yu Andreas Becker Zachary Flamig Jonathan Gourley |
| author_facet | Katharina Lengfeld Pierre-Emmanuel Kirstetter Hayley J Fowler Jingjing Yu Andreas Becker Zachary Flamig Jonathan Gourley |
| author_sort | Katharina Lengfeld |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Extreme precipitation is one of the most devastating forms of atmospheric phenomenon, causing severe damage worldwide, and is likely to intensify in strength and occurrence in a warming climate. This contribution gives an overview of the potential and challenges associated with using weather radar data to investigate extreme precipitation. We illustrate this by presenting radar data sets for Germany, the U.S. and the UK that resolve small-scale heavy rainfall events of just a few km ^2 with return periods of 5 years or more. Current challenges such as relatively short radar records and radar-based QPE uncertainty are discussed. An example from a precipitation climatology derived from the German weather radar network with spatial resolution of 1 km reveals the necessity of radars for observing short-term (1–6 h) extreme precipitation. Only 17.3% of hourly heavy precipitation events that occurred in Germany from 2001 to 2018 were captured by the rain gauge station network, while 81.8% of daily events were observed. This is underlined by a similar study using data from the UK radar network for 2014. Only 36.6% (52%) of heavy hourly (daily) rain events detected by the radar network were also captured by precipitation gauging stations. Implications for the monitoring of hydrologic extremes are demonstrated over the U.S. with a continental-scale radar-based reanalysis. Hydrologic extremes are documented over ∼1000 times more locations than stream gauges, including in the majority of ungauged basins. This underlines the importance of high-resolution weather radar observations for resolving small-scale rainfall events, and the necessity of radar-based climatological data sets for understanding the small-scale and high-temporal resolution characteristics of extreme precipitation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:50:46Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4664a6cea9954065be0e0ceaee1c24d5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:50:46Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-4664a6cea9954065be0e0ceaee1c24d52023-08-09T15:09:47ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262020-01-0115808500310.1088/1748-9326/ab98b4Use of radar data for characterizing extreme precipitation at fine scales and short durationsKatharina Lengfeld0Pierre-Emmanuel Kirstetter1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7381-0229Hayley J Fowler2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8848-3606Jingjing Yu3Andreas Becker4Zachary Flamig5Jonathan Gourley6https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7363-3755Department of Hydrometeorology, Deutscher Wetterdienst , Offenbach am Main, GermanySchool of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma , Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America; School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science, University of Oklahoma , Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America; Advanced Radar Research Center, University of Oklahoma , Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America; NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory , Norman, Oklahoma, United States of AmericaSchool of Engineering, Newcastle University , United KingdomSchool of Engineering, Newcastle University , United KingdomDepartment of Hydrometeorology, Deutscher Wetterdienst , Offenbach am Main, GermanyCooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies , Norman, Oklahoma, United States of AmericaNOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory , Norman, Oklahoma, United States of AmericaExtreme precipitation is one of the most devastating forms of atmospheric phenomenon, causing severe damage worldwide, and is likely to intensify in strength and occurrence in a warming climate. This contribution gives an overview of the potential and challenges associated with using weather radar data to investigate extreme precipitation. We illustrate this by presenting radar data sets for Germany, the U.S. and the UK that resolve small-scale heavy rainfall events of just a few km ^2 with return periods of 5 years or more. Current challenges such as relatively short radar records and radar-based QPE uncertainty are discussed. An example from a precipitation climatology derived from the German weather radar network with spatial resolution of 1 km reveals the necessity of radars for observing short-term (1–6 h) extreme precipitation. Only 17.3% of hourly heavy precipitation events that occurred in Germany from 2001 to 2018 were captured by the rain gauge station network, while 81.8% of daily events were observed. This is underlined by a similar study using data from the UK radar network for 2014. Only 36.6% (52%) of heavy hourly (daily) rain events detected by the radar network were also captured by precipitation gauging stations. Implications for the monitoring of hydrologic extremes are demonstrated over the U.S. with a continental-scale radar-based reanalysis. Hydrologic extremes are documented over ∼1000 times more locations than stream gauges, including in the majority of ungauged basins. This underlines the importance of high-resolution weather radar observations for resolving small-scale rainfall events, and the necessity of radar-based climatological data sets for understanding the small-scale and high-temporal resolution characteristics of extreme precipitation.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab98b4extreme precipitationweather radarspaceborne radarprecipitation sensorsprecipitation climatology |
| spellingShingle | Katharina Lengfeld Pierre-Emmanuel Kirstetter Hayley J Fowler Jingjing Yu Andreas Becker Zachary Flamig Jonathan Gourley Use of radar data for characterizing extreme precipitation at fine scales and short durations Environmental Research Letters extreme precipitation weather radar spaceborne radar precipitation sensors precipitation climatology |
| title | Use of radar data for characterizing extreme precipitation at fine scales and short durations |
| title_full | Use of radar data for characterizing extreme precipitation at fine scales and short durations |
| title_fullStr | Use of radar data for characterizing extreme precipitation at fine scales and short durations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Use of radar data for characterizing extreme precipitation at fine scales and short durations |
| title_short | Use of radar data for characterizing extreme precipitation at fine scales and short durations |
| title_sort | use of radar data for characterizing extreme precipitation at fine scales and short durations |
| topic | extreme precipitation weather radar spaceborne radar precipitation sensors precipitation climatology |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab98b4 |
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