comparing nexrad and gauge rainfall data
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Comparing NEXRAD and Gauge Rainfall Data. Nate Johnson CE 394K.2 Final Project April 26, 2005. Motivation. USGS performs hydrologic and water quality modeling using rainfall data from gauges. Sometimes there is greater than 20 km between gauges - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Comparing NEXRAD and Gauge Rainfall Data
Nate JohnsonCE 394K.2 Final Project
April 26, 2005
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Motivation
• USGS performs hydrologic and water quality modeling using rainfall data from gauges.
9 km6 km
10 km
>20 km
• Sometimes there is greater than 20 km between gauges
• NEXRAD provides rainfall estimates on 4 km2 grid
• Could more acccurate hydrologic simulations could be performed with “accurate” distributed rainfall information?
How does NEXRAD precipitation data compare to gauges used for hydrologic modeling?
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Outline
Project involved 2 major tasks:
1. Transferring data from NEXRAD files to something more accessible
2. Comparing NEXRAD rainfall estimates to rain gauge measurements
a)Cumulative Difference
b)Storm Bias
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Background – File Structure
Space – Time – Variable dimensions
Gridded File – One Time, all space
TimeSeries File – One Location, all time
• To create a TimeSeries file (for a single location) from a collection of Gridded files (for a single time) must access thousands of gridded files!
24 hours * 365 days = 8,760 files/year
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Background – Rainfall Estimates
• Compare NEXRAD to gauge based on…
• Point Comparisons (Grid Cell immediately above)
• Within cell spatial variability?
• Spatial Averages
• Interpolate between gauges?
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This project only considers point comparisons…
Stay tuned for Jessica Watt’s presentation containing spatial
comparisons
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Methods – Extract NEXRAD Data• Extracted 2 months of hourly NEXRAD data for about
1,800 cells near San Antonio.
• August and September of 2001 were very rainy
• ~100,000 non-zero timeseries records
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Methods – Compare NEXRAD/Gauge
First method – Cumulative difference over two months
• For each hour, calculate difference between Radar and Gauge and add to pervious total
• Removes biases from timing discrepancies
n
iiiCum GRDiff
1
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Results – Cumulative Differences
August – September 2001
> 11 inches of rain!
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Results – Cumulative DifferencesS.A. Airport Gauge – 11.9 inches total
NEXRAD – Rain Gauge
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Results – Cumulative DifferencesGovernment Canyon Gauge – 10.3 inches total
NEXRAD – Rain Gauge
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Results – Cumulative DifferencesBulverde Rain Gauge – 10.8 inches Total
NEXRAD – Rain Gauge
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Methods – Compare NEXRAD/Gauge
Second method – Storm-to-Storm Comparison
• Based on an analysis by NCAR and NOAA in 1979
• Considers each event independently and looks for systematic biases
• Uses Ratio ‘G/R’ of Gauge to Radar for total storm-event precipitation
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Methods – Compare NEXRAD/Gauge
Average G/R
gauges i
iAve R
GRG /
Coefficient of Variation
Ave
ii
RGRG
VOC/
/..
N
i i
iiAve N
GRG
Diff1
/Average Difference
N
i i
AveiiAve N
GRGRG
Diff1
//
2Average Difference (Storm Bias Removed)
G/R < 1
G/R > 1 G/R > 1
G/R > 1
G/R < 1
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Results – Storm Bias Comparison
Original DifferenceImprovement?
Date#
Gages
Storm Duration
[h]G [in]
Average G/R
Relative dispersion
about Average G/R
[%]
Average Difference
[%]
Average Difference
(Storm Bias Corrected)
[%]
Average Difference assuming Log
Distribution for G/R (Storm Bias
Corrected) [%]
8/19/2001 3 4 0.29 1.45 0.27 0.28 0.20 0.198/27/2001 8 6 2.26 1.12 0.32 0.23 0.24 0.238/28/2001 7 4 0.64 1.06 0.47 0.40 0.43 0.398/28/2001 6 2 0.19 1.16 0.27 0.14 0.17 0.168/29/2001 8 10 1.95 2.74 0.64 0.48 0.71 0.598/30/2001 8 10 1.86 1.06 0.42 0.47 0.50 0.458/31/2001 6 4 0.83 1.13 0.35 0.27 0.28 0.27
9/1/2001 8 4 0.82 1.14 0.47 0.20 0.29 0.249/5/2001 3 4 0.42 0.96 0.04 0.04 0.03 0.039/6/2001 8 6 1.79 1.09 0.23 0.16 0.17 0.17
9/23/2001 7 4 0.52 0.91 0.35 0.37 0.35 0.35
1.26 0.35 0.28 0.31 0.28
Not enough gauges? Too much scatter?
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Conclusions / Future Work
• Some significant differences between NEXRAD and Gauge measurements
• May be too much scatter in G/R to remove “Storm Bias” from NEXRAD
• Still need to consider effects of spatial averaging
• Investigate the effects on hydrologic modeling results
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Background – Rainfall Estimates
• Hydrologic modeling traditionally relies upon estimates for “Average Drainage – Area precipitation
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• Some question yet as to whether or not it is appropriate to use NEXRAD for hydrologic modeling
• Studies have shown some disturbing differences between NEXRAD and gauge measurements
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Methods – Extract NEXRAD Data• First – Get NEXRAD data into Arc Hydro Geodatabase
• Second – Get Arc Hydro into Timeseries format
Arc Hydro GDB
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Background – File Structure• NEXRAD data are stored in a gridded file structure
• Hydrologic models require data in a TimeSeries Structure
Gridded File – One Time TimeSeries File – One Location