A Comparison of Radar-Derived Precipitation and Rain Gage Precipitation in Northeastern Colorado.

Abstract

Accurate precipitation measurement is desired over large areal extents in fine temporal and spatial resolution for a myriad of scientific disciplines and practical applications. Hydrological sciences and federal and local government agencies would benefit from improved precipitation measurements. The question is can radars satisfy this desire for better precipitation measurements. The WSR-88D radar network will provide nearly complete radar coverage of the contiguous United States and has the ability to operationally measure large areal extents in fine temporal and spatial resolutions. Precipitation products derived from the WSR-88D networks are becoming readily more accessible and steadily gaining in popularity and use, often without any reference to accuracy. This study is a comparison of precipitation from the CSU-CHILL multiparameter research radar, National Weather Service's WSR-88D located outside Denver, CO (KFTG), and networks of tipping bucket gages. Comparisons are made to reveal spatial coverage of precipitation, time distribution of precipitation, and quantify amounts of precipitation derived from the two radars and gage networks from three convective precipitation events in northeastern Colorado. (MM)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 10, 1995
Accession Number
ADA300096

Entities

People

  • Peter C. Clement

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Algorithms
  • Atmospheric Sciences
  • Case Studies
  • Colorado
  • Convection
  • Data Processing
  • Equations
  • Flood Control
  • Grids
  • Measurement
  • Meteorology
  • Precipitation
  • Rain Gages
  • Scattering
  • Three Dimensional
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science/Meteorology
  • Systems Analysis and Design