High-Resolution QPE Products from the Experimental MRMS System

The operational Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) system deployed at the National Center for Environmental Predictions has provided very high-resolution (1-km, 2-min) severe weather and quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) products for the CONUS domain since 2014. The operational products are used by government agencies, private sectors and academia for various applications including flash flood/river flood monitoring and predictions, fire weather and water resource managements and precipitation climatology studies. A major upgrade (version 12 or “v12”) to the MRMS system was developed recently and a number of new products are generated from the experimental MRMS system at the NOAA’s National Severe Storms Lab.

The MRMS v12 products include a dual-polarization radar QPE (instantaneous rate and 1- to 72-h accumulations) and a multi-sensor QPE (1- to 72h accumulations). The radar QPE is based on a synthetic scheme using radar reflectivity, specific attenuation and specific differential phase fields. A suite of radar quality index (RQI) products are generated to characterize QPE uncertainties associated with potential radar outage, coverage and sampling issues. The multi-sensor QPE merges radar, gauge, precipitation climatology and quantitative precipitation forecasts from numerical weather prediction models based on the error characteristics of each component. The error characteristics are reflected in the weight fields for each component, which are part of the experimental products. This paper presents an overview of the new QPE and associated products in the experimental MRMS v12 system.