A pico-scale (1-m to 1-km separations) raingauge network (piconet)is being constructed within the Little Washita River watershed in central Oklahoma. This network will be nested within the existing micronet run by the Oklahoma ARS. Deployment will include approximately twenty tipping bucket raingauges of the style and calibration of those used by the Oklahoma Mesonet all within a square kilometer. A handful of mobile 'satellite' raingauges will be constructed to extend beyond the piconet to match shape inhomogenates of approaching rain patterns. Redundant correlations will be found between gauges at increasing distances under a variety of precipitation events and classes of convection (air mass thunderstorms, isolated severe storms, MCS's, and squall lines). These gauge correlations will extend up to the ARS Micronet and Oklahoma Mesonet gauge separation distances. Eventually, the 1-km square network will be correlated with the Twin Lakes Doppler radar, which has an approximately 1-km square pixel size at the location of the piconet. Neural networks applications will suggest rainfall corrections to radar algorithms based on storm classification.
Calibrations, instrument modification, error reduction, data collection and initial findings will be discussed. The use of such a piconetwork will be presented for pacific atolls as a representation of latent heat release over the open ocean for satellite verification (i.e. TRMM).