Validation of NEXRAD Stage III (or MPE) precipitation in Texas Hill Country and the variability of the estimates between Texas Hill Country and Central New Mexico

National Weather Service's NEXRAD precipitation products have been widely used to analyze the statistical characteristics of extreme rainfall and hydrometeorological events, to validate satellite remote-sensing algorithms, and to perform flood predictions. Despite considerable evaluation studies, the quality of the multisensor NEXRAD Stage III precipitation data is still under investigation. The quality varies as region, time, and climate regime changes. This study compares 4 years (2001-2004) of Stage III (or MPE) data from West Gulf River Forecast Center (WGRFC) and raingauge (over 100 raingauges) rainfall measurements over the Texas Hill Country from Edwards Aquifer Authority (EAA), Guadalupe Blanco River Authority (GBRA), and National Climate Data Center (NCDC). Time series analysis and geospatial statistics will be used to study and quantify the spatial and temporal variability of rainfall estimates, the difference of two types of rainfall estimates, and the estimate errors and error sources. Then, these results will be compared with a study previously performed at Central New Mexico, a semi-arid region. Both are in the same WGRFC but completely different climate and precipitation types. It is expecting to see how and to what extent the difference of radar estimates in these two areas. This study intends to provide some insides of the quality of NEXRAD Stage 3 (MPE) data and automated and GIS-based tools for transferring raw NEXRAD III and raingage data into various applications format.