High-Resolution Quantitative Precipitation Estimation from Measurement of S-Band Doppler Weather Radar Network over Eastern China

Doppler weather radar is an important and effective instrument to observe precipitation at regional scale. It has become one of the important means of monitoring and forecasting catastrophic weather. It is widely used in some developed countries in the world. China has set up a dense weather Doppler radar network with total 216 radars around China by 2014, which is called China New Generation Weather Radar (CINRAD). Using radar network technology, a dense radar network mosaic system is used to simultaneously observe precipitation in a larger area. Weather radar can provide high spatial resolution of precipitation observation products, but it suffers several sources of error which affect the accuracy of precipitation estimation. In this study, the radar network is composed of about 6 S-band Doppler weather radars over eastern China. Quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) algorithm includes various critical procedures, such as beam blockage analysis, ground clutter filter, rain type identification, and multiple Z-R relations. This QPE algorithm is developed to detect the extreme precipitation storms in eastern China, such as the Yancheng Tornado on 23 July of 2016.The Relative Bias (RB), Correlation Coefficient (CC), Probability Of Detection (POD), False Alarm Ratio (FAR) and other parameters, and combining with the observation results of ground. Radar precipitation estimation accuracy and source of error are evaluated and analyzed.

Key: Doppler weather radar; quantitative precipitation estimate; evaluation; error sources;