The role of water vapor observations in satellite-based rainfall information highlighted by a Deep Learning approach

Rain-fed agriculture is the main source of food in Ghana therefore improving quantitative rainfall estimates is essential for local farmers to predict crop growth using vegetation models. Rainfall dynamics in the tropics is an ongoing topic of research due to their complexity and sub-grid precipitation variability. At the same time, tropical...

Soccer Fields as Rainfall Detectors using Machine Learning: The case of Ghana

Agriculture is an important source of income for many countries in the Global South, where it may account for as much as 25% of GDP. Precipitation is crucial for agriculture in countries like Ghana, where ~95% of farming is rainfed. Accurate rainfall observations are limited in Ghana. The sparse rain gauge network and the lack of weather radars...

Spatial and Time Warping for Gauge Adjustment of Rainfall Estimates

Many satellite-based estimates use gauge information for bias correction. In general, bias-correction methods are focused on the intensity error and do not explicitly correct possible position or timing errors. However, position and timing errors in rainfall estimates can also lead to errors in the rainfall occurrence or the intensity. This is...

Correcting Position Error in Precipitation Data Using Image Morphing

Rainfall estimates based on satellite data are subject to errors in the position of the rainfall events in addition to errors in their intensity. This is especially true for localized rainfall events such as the convective rainstorms that occur during the monsoon season in sub-Saharan Africa. Many satellite-based estimates use gauge...

Precipitable water vapour estimation using GPS in Uganda: Measuring and modelling the precipitable water vapour using single and dual frequency GPS receivers

Additional thesis - Precipitation and especially rainfall are very important for the world’s population. It has its positive and negative side like providing water and contrary causing floods. Therefore it is of utmost importance to make clear and accurate weather predictions. The revolution of GPS in the last few decades gave a new opportunity...

Characterization and Design of a Readout Circuit for a Piezoelectric-based Acoustic Disdrometer

In 2009, Department of Water Management (DWM) at TU Delft conceptualized the design of a low-cost disdrometer suitable for large scale, remote deployment. But, being a novel idea, its electrical characteristics were not well researched. Also, the system was not sensitive enough to measure the raindrops of diameter less than 0.9mm. Furthermore,...