Precipitation Characteristics at Two Locations in the Tropical Andes by Means of Vertically Pointing Micro-Rain Radar Observations
by
Jochen Seidel 1,*
, Katja Trachte 2,3, Johanna Orellana-Alvear 2,4, Rafael Figueroa 5, Rolando Célleri 6, Jörg Bendix 2, Ciro Fernandez 5 and Christian Huggel 7
Jochen Seidel 1,*, Katja Trachte 2,3, Johanna Orellana-Alvear 2,4, Rafael Figueroa 5, Rolando Célleri 6, Jörg Bendix 2, Ciro Fernandez 5 and Christian Huggel 7
1
Institute for Modelling Hydraulic and Environmental Systems, University of Stuttgart, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany
2
Laboratory for Climatology and Remote Sensing, Philipps-University Marburg, D-35032 Marburg, Germany
3
Institute for Environmental Sciences, Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU), Cottbus-Senftenberg, D-03013 Cottbus, Germany
4
Departamento de Recursos Hídricos y Ciencias Ambientales, Universidad de Cuenca, Cuenca EC010207, Ecuador
5
Centro de Investigación Ambiental para el Desarrollo, Universidad Nacional Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo, Huaraz 02002, Peru
6
Departamento de Recursos Hídricos y Ciencias Ambientales, and Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Cuenca, Cuenca EC010207, Ecuador
7
Department of Geography, University of Zurich, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(24), 2985; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11242985
Received: 30 September 2019 / Revised: 4 December 2019 / Accepted: 4 December 2019 / Published: 12 December 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radar Meteorology)
In remote areas with steep topography, such as the Tropical Andes, reliable precipitation data with a high temporal resolution are scarce. Therefore, studies focusing on the diurnal properties of precipitation are hampered. In this paper, we investigated two years of data from Micro-Rain Radars (MRR) in Cuenca, Ecuador, and Huaraz, Peru, from February 2017 to January 2019. This data allowed for a detailed study on the temporal precipitation characteristics, such as event occurrences and durations at these two locations. Our results showed that the majority of precipitation events had durations of less than 3 h. In Huaraz, precipitation has a distinct annual and diurnal cycle where precipitation in the rainy season occurred predominantly in the afternoon. These annual and diurnal cycles were less pronounced at the site in Cuenca, especially due to increased nocturnal precipitation events compared to Huaraz. Furthermore, we used a fuzzy logic classification of fall velocities and rainfall intensities to distinguish different precipitation types. This classification showed that nightly precipitation at both locations was predominantly stratiform, whereas (thermally induced) convection occurred almost exclusively during the daytime hours.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Seidel, J.; Trachte, K.; Orellana-Alvear, J.; Figueroa, R.; Célleri, R.; Bendix, J.; Fernandez, C.; Huggel, C. Precipitation Characteristics at Two Locations in the Tropical Andes by Means of Vertically Pointing Micro-Rain Radar Observations. Remote Sens. 2019, 11, 2985.
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