Speaker
Description
Accurate rainfall observations, particularly with a high resolution in space and time. are of paramount societal importance for several reasons. They are needed to derive statistics of rainfall extremes used for planning and designing infrastructure. They are used to establish the best possible initial state for subsequent weather forecasts and rainfall nowcasts. They are crucial for developing numerical weather and climate models as well as for assessing climatic trends.
Today, most National Meteorological and Hydrological Institutes use meteorological stations, often together with weather radar, for rainfall observations. However, station networks are often sparse and rainfall observations by weather radar notoriously uncertain. As a complement, opportunistic rainfall observations have been advocated for several years by now. The most investigated and commonly used types are observations based on attenuation in signals between Commercial Microwave Links (CML) and observations from Personal Weather Stations (PWS). Both types are associated with distinct errors and uncertainties, but owing to their high spatial density faulty data may be discarded and useful signals filtered out.
Many proof-of-concept studies have demonstrated the potential of opportunistic rainfall observations for different applications, and in this effort performed within COST Action OpenSense we review the applications carried out. The applications are divided into two categories; rainfall mapping (further divided into single opportunistic sensor or merged opportunistic/conventional sensors) and subsequent applications (further divided into rainfall nowcasting and hydrological prediction). We will present the results of this review as well as discuss some remaining challenges and potential solutions concerning practical applications of opportunistic rainfall observations.
| Are you an Early Career Scientist ? | No |
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