Radar rainfall estimates in an alpine environment using inverse hydrological modelling

• Published in: Advances in geosciences Vol. 9; no. 9; pp. 25 - 29
• Main Authors: Marx, A, Kunstmann, H, BÈírdossy, A, Seltmann, J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus GmbH 26-09-2006; European Geosciences Union; Copernicus Publications
• Subjects: Analysis; Earth Sciences; Hydrology; Rain and rainfall; Sciences of the Universe
• ISSN: 1680-7359; 1680-7340; 1680-7359
• DOI: 10.5194/adgeo-9-25-2006

The quality of hydrological modelling is limited due to the restricted availability of high resolution temporal and spatial input data such as temperature, global radiation, and precipitation. Radar-based rain measurements provide good spatial information. On the other hand, using radar data is accompanied by basic difficulties such as clutter, shielding, variations of Z/R-relationships, beam-resolution and attenuation. Instead of accounting for all errors involved separately, a robust Z/R-relationship is estimated in this study for the short range (up to 40 km distance) using inverse hydrological modelling for a continuous period of three months in summer 2001. River gauge measurements from catchment sizes around 100 km2 are used to estimate areal precipitation and finally Z/R-relationships using a calibrated hydrological model. The study is performed in the alpine Ammer catchment with very short reaction times of the river gauges to rainfall events.