Toward the optimal resolution on rainfall estimates to obtain reliable urban hydrological response

Abstract

Weather observations are conventionally performed by single polarization C-band weather radars with a temporal and spatial resolution of 5 min and 1 km, respectively. However, for urbanized areas, these spatial and temporal resolutions may not be sufficient to detect, monitor, and obtain accurate rainfall rate estimates of fastevolving weather phenomena. In this work, a S-band vertical profiler (TARA) and a X-band horizontal scanner polarimetric weather radars (IDRA) located in the Cabauw Experimental Site for Atmospheric Research (CESAR) observatory are used to characterize physical processes and obtain accurate rainfall rate estimates of severe thunderstorms at high temporal and spatial resolutions. A large convective front over Western Europe on January 03 2012 was observed by the C-band operational radar from The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI in Dutch initials) and by both, IDRA and TARA. It is expected the new insights will be revealed based on the polarimetric and the high-resolution capabilities from both radars. Moreover, rainfall rate estimates obtained from IDRA are used to simulate rainfall at lower spatial resolutions to analyze the spatial rain variability over a simulated urban drainage system belonging to Rotterdam urban area.