Second International Conference on Opportunistic Sensing of Precipitation - OpenSense 2026

Session

Oral session #1

Jun 23, 2026, 10:45 AM

Building A (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute)

21. Lessons learned from 10 years of CMLs experiments in Africa

Marielle Gosset (IRD)

6/23/26, 10:45 AM

Rainfall monitoring in the Global South

Since 2014 when the first conference on Rain Measurement from Cellular Phone Network in Africa was held in Burkina Faso, our group at IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement) with partners from University of Abidjan in Ivory coast and Douala in Cameroon, has carried on developing (or trying to develop) pilot experiments in different countries, Niger, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and more...

31. Automating quality control of rainfall telemetry via the fusion of commercial microwave links and hourly multivariate ERA5 data

Mr SAMUEL WAMBUI (DEDAN KIMATHI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY)

6/23/26, 11:00 AM

Rainfall monitoring in the Global South

Automated quality control (QC) of rainfall measurements from sparse networks, such as the Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO), is challenging due to environmental faults like persistent clogging and mechanical spikes. Traditional QC algorithms rely heavily on spatial cross-validation with neighboring gauges; however, this approach fails in these regions where spatial...

19. Precipitation monitoring across diverse environments using acoustic recorders and a dry-weather baseline

Mr Rodrigo Xavier (Universidade Federal do Ceará, Université de Toulouse)

6/23/26, 11:15 AM

Rainfall monitoring in the Global South

Accurate and continuous rainfall measurements remain a challenging task, particularly in regions with sparse ground-based observations. In recent years, opportunistic approaches have emerged as a means of improving precipitation monitoring. In this study, we adapt a methodology originally developed for rainfall detection using Commercial Microwave Links to a framework based on passive acoustic...

7. A multi-climate comparison of GPM radiometer and commercial microwave link (CML) rainfall estimates

Linda Bogerd (TU Delft)

6/23/26, 11:30 AM

Rainfall monitoring in the Global South

Rainfall retrievals from commercial microwave links (CMLs) have become a valuable complement to conventional rainfall sensors, especially in the Global South where weather radar and rain gauge networks remain sparse. However, CML coverage is limited over inaccessible and in rural regions, thereby limiting their applicability for short-term forecasting and flood early warning. Satellites do...

45. Real-time CML rainfall monitoring for weather applications in Ghana

Bas Walraven (Delft University of Technology)

6/23/26, 11:45 AM

Rainfall monitoring in the Global South

Over the past two decades, the use of Commercial Microwave Links (CMLs) as opportunistic rainfall sensors has evolved from proof-of-concept studies involving a limited number of links to the production of multi-year, country-wide rainfall maps. Despite this progress, (near-real time) operational applications of CML-derived rainfall products remain largely confined to pilot studies. Moreover,...

27. Rain measurement from CMLs and other opportunistic and classical sensors in Ivory Coast : initial results and perspectives for urban hydrology

Dr Modeste Huberson Ahiba KACOU (Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny)

6/23/26, 12:00 PM

Rainfall monitoring in the Global South

The difficulty of deploying dense networks of rain gauges in urban areas due to installation and maintenance costs, as well as the spatial structure of cities, particularly in Africa, makes it challenging to monitor the impact of extreme rainfall events. Flood risk management and urban hydrological modeling require accurate information on the spatial and temporal distribution of...