A new quality assurance system is under development and scheduled for implementation operationally in January 2004. The system uses rules-based GIS technology and, multiple external data sources to fully automate spatial quality assurance for both daily and hourly in-situ precipitation data.

The external data sources consist of, but are not limited to the, Automated Surface Observing System Network (ASOS), Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) model, Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), and Weather Surveillance Radar 1988 Doppler (WSR-88D). This automated Precipitation Validation (PrecipVal) system replaces interactive graphical validation processes that required manual efforts to examine suspect data. Higher confidence in PrecipVal is attributed to a change in methodology (using multiple external layers) and access to higher quality data for use as "ground truth."

Additionally, PrecipVal is able to estimate daily replacement precipitation values for any number of missing days whereas the current validation process can only generate precipitation values under certain conditions.

Testing of the new system using statistical analysis and, manual verification is ongoing. The results of the tests will be shown.