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Advancing Precipitation Estimation and Streamflow Simulations in Complex Terrain with X-Band Dual-Polarization Radar Observations
by
Marios N. Anagnostou 1,2,3,*, Efthymios I. Nikolopoulos 4, John Kalogiros 1
, Emmanouil N. Anagnostou 4, Francesco Marra 5, Elisabeth Mair 6, Giacomo Bertoldi 6, Ulrike Tappeiner 6,7 and Marco Borga 8
, Emmanouil N. Anagnostou 4, Francesco Marra 5, Elisabeth Mair 6, Giacomo Bertoldi 6, Ulrike Tappeiner 6,7 and Marco Borga 8
1
National Observatory of Athens, IERSD, 15236 Athens, Greece
2
Department of Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, DUTH, 67100 Xanthi, Greece
3
Department of Water Resources, School of Civil Engineering, NTUA, 10682 Athens, Greece
4
Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Connecticut, Hartford, CT 06269, USA
5
Institute of Earth Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
6
Institute for Alpine Environment, Eurac research, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
7
Department of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck A-6020, Austria
8
Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, 35122 Padova, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Remote Sens. 2018, 10(8), 1258; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10081258
Received: 26 June 2018 / Revised: 22 July 2018 / Accepted: 6 August 2018 / Published: 10 August 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing of Precipitation)
In mountain basins, the use of long-range operational weather radars is often associated with poor quantitative precipitation estimation due to a number of challenges posed by the complexity of terrain. As a result, the applicability of radar-based precipitation estimates for hydrological studies is often limited over areas that are in close proximity to the radar. This study evaluates the advantages of using X-band polarimetric (XPOL) radar as a means to fill the coverage gaps and improve complex terrain precipitation estimation and associated hydrological applications based on a field experiment conducted in an area of Northeast Italian Alps characterized by large elevation differences. The corresponding rainfall estimates from two operational C-band weather radar observations are compared to the XPOL rainfall estimates for a near-range (10–35 km) mountainous basin (64 km2). In situ rainfall observations from a dense rain gauge network and two disdrometers (a 2D-video and a Parsivel) are used for ground validation of the radar-rainfall estimates. Ten storm events over a period of two years are used to explore the differences between the locally deployed XPOL vs. longer-range operational radar-rainfall error statistics. Hourly aggregate rainfall estimates by XPOL, corrected for rain-path attenuation and vertical reflectivity profile, exhibited correlations between 0.70 and 0.99 against reference rainfall data and 21% mean relative error for rainfall rates above 0.2 mm h−1. The corresponding metrics from the operational radar-network rainfall products gave a strong underestimation (50–70%) and lower correlations (0.48–0.81). For the two highest flow-peak events, a hydrological model (Kinematic Local Excess Model) was forced with the different radar-rainfall estimations and in situ rain gauge precipitation data at hourly resolution, exhibiting close agreement between the XPOL and gauge-based driven runoff simulations, while the simulations obtained by the operational radar rainfall products resulted in a greatly underestimated runoff response.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Anagnostou, M.N.; Nikolopoulos, E.I.; Kalogiros, J.; Anagnostou, E.N.; Marra, F.; Mair, E.; Bertoldi, G.; Tappeiner, U.; Borga, M. Advancing Precipitation Estimation and Streamflow Simulations in Complex Terrain with X-Band Dual-Polarization Radar Observations. Remote Sens. 2018, 10, 1258.
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