{"id":1136,"date":"2020-01-21T15:06:20","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T15:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/?p=1136"},"modified":"2020-01-22T17:49:20","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22T17:49:20","slug":"investigation-of-the-ability-of-the-renewed-uk-operational-weather-radar-network-to-provide-accurate-real-time-rainfall-estimates-for-improved-flood-warnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/2020\/01\/21\/investigation-of-the-ability-of-the-renewed-uk-operational-weather-radar-network-to-provide-accurate-real-time-rainfall-estimates-for-improved-flood-warnings\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigation of the ability of the renewed UK operational weather radar network to provide accurate real-time rainfall estimates for improved flood warnings."},"content":{"rendered":"

by Dr RobThompson and Prof Anthony Illingworth, Dept of Meteorology, University of Reading<\/em><\/p>\n

The UK operational radar network has the potential to deliver real-time rainfall estimates every five minutes with a resolution of 1km2<\/sup> over most of the populated areas of the UK. If these rain rates were accurate then such data would have a major impact on the ability to predict short term \u2018flash\u2019 flooding events so that mitigating action can be taken. However, at present, for flood warnings, the accuracy is deemed insufficient, so the radar rainfall estimates from each radar are continuously adjusted using recent observations by ground-based rain gauges.<\/p>\n

The UK radar network has recently been renewed and upgraded to dual polarisation, resulting in much improved data quality. In this study we will compare the radar signal obtained every five minutes from\u00a0 the operational Dean Hill radar with the rain rate at the ground some 20km from the radar and just 400m below the radar beam and use this to validate and improve the retrieval algorithms that convert the radar return signal, or \u2018reflectivity\u2019 into a rain rate at the ground.<\/p>\n

In the preparatory work\u00a0 for this DARE pilot project we have been comparing the radar reflectivity observed every five minutes with the scanning Dean Hill radar 20km distant from Chilbolton where we have five different high resolution rain gauges. The radar pulse samples a volume 300m by 300m by 600m and is at a height of 400m above the gauges (see image).\u00a0 One of these gauges measures the size distribution of the rain drops and so once we know the sizes and number of the drops we can calculate the radar reflectivity we would expect from the radar. Over the past two years we find close agreement, but there appears to be a slow drift in the radar calibration of about 60%. In collaboration with the Met Office we are trying to find the source of this drift.\u00a0 However, once we correct for this drift, we find that with the new radar and its improved data quality there is a close correspondence between the rain from the radar and that observed at the ground.\u00a0 This performance appears to be much better than previously obtained before the radars were upgraded.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Image. Multiple rain gauges<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Dr RobThompson and Prof Anthony Illingworth, Dept of Meteorology, University of Reading The UK operational radar network has the potential to deliver real-time rainfall estimates every five minutes with…Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":1108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6,48,1,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-impact-weather","category-remote-sensing","category-uncategorised","category-weather-forecasting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nInvestigation of the ability of the renewed UK operational weather radar network to provide accurate real-time rainfall estimates for improved flood warnings. - DARE<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/2020\/01\/21\/investigation-of-the-ability-of-the-renewed-uk-operational-weather-radar-network-to-provide-accurate-real-time-rainfall-estimates-for-improved-flood-warnings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Investigation of the ability of the renewed UK operational weather radar network to provide accurate real-time rainfall estimates for improved flood warnings. - DARE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Dr RobThompson and Prof Anthony Illingworth, Dept of Meteorology, University of Reading The UK operational radar network has the potential to deliver real-time rainfall estimates every five minutes with...Read More >\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/2020\/01\/21\/investigation-of-the-ability-of-the-renewed-uk-operational-weather-radar-network-to-provide-accurate-real-time-rainfall-estimates-for-improved-flood-warnings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"DARE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-21T15:06:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-22T17:49:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/Unorganized\/Illingworth-Nov-19-Image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jessica Gardner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jessica Gardner\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/2020\/01\/21\/investigation-of-the-ability-of-the-renewed-uk-operational-weather-radar-network-to-provide-accurate-real-time-rainfall-estimates-for-improved-flood-warnings\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/2020\/01\/21\/investigation-of-the-ability-of-the-renewed-uk-operational-weather-radar-network-to-provide-accurate-real-time-rainfall-estimates-for-improved-flood-warnings\/\",\"name\":\"Investigation of the ability of the renewed UK operational weather radar network to provide accurate real-time rainfall estimates for improved flood warnings. - DARE\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-21T15:06:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-22T17:49:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/#\/schema\/person\/e0cdff4a2766962bcad80bcfdd6b58d0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/2020\/01\/21\/investigation-of-the-ability-of-the-renewed-uk-operational-weather-radar-network-to-provide-accurate-real-time-rainfall-estimates-for-improved-flood-warnings\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/2020\/01\/21\/investigation-of-the-ability-of-the-renewed-uk-operational-weather-radar-network-to-provide-accurate-real-time-rainfall-estimates-for-improved-flood-warnings\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/2020\/01\/21\/investigation-of-the-ability-of-the-renewed-uk-operational-weather-radar-network-to-provide-accurate-real-time-rainfall-estimates-for-improved-flood-warnings\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Investigation of the ability of the renewed UK operational weather radar network to provide accurate real-time rainfall estimates for improved flood warnings.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/\",\"name\":\"DARE\",\"description\":\"Data Assimilation for the REsilient City\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/#\/schema\/person\/e0cdff4a2766962bcad80bcfdd6b58d0\",\"name\":\"Jessica Gardner\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8a6d2ee6cf3a71e60790de38cd5aed0ce278defcb8bf720d2c12bd009294ec78?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8a6d2ee6cf3a71e60790de38cd5aed0ce278defcb8bf720d2c12bd009294ec78?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jessica Gardner\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/author\/jessica-gardnerreading-ac-uk\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Investigation of the ability of the renewed UK operational weather radar network to provide accurate real-time rainfall estimates for improved flood warnings. - DARE","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/2020\/01\/21\/investigation-of-the-ability-of-the-renewed-uk-operational-weather-radar-network-to-provide-accurate-real-time-rainfall-estimates-for-improved-flood-warnings\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Investigation of the ability of the renewed UK operational weather radar network to provide accurate real-time rainfall estimates for improved flood warnings. - DARE","og_description":"by Dr RobThompson and Prof Anthony Illingworth, Dept of Meteorology, University of Reading The UK operational radar network has the potential to deliver real-time rainfall estimates every five minutes with...Read More >","og_url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/2020\/01\/21\/investigation-of-the-ability-of-the-renewed-uk-operational-weather-radar-network-to-provide-accurate-real-time-rainfall-estimates-for-improved-flood-warnings\/","og_site_name":"DARE","article_published_time":"2020-01-21T15:06:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-01-22T17:49:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/Unorganized\/Illingworth-Nov-19-Image.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jessica Gardner","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jessica Gardner","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/2020\/01\/21\/investigation-of-the-ability-of-the-renewed-uk-operational-weather-radar-network-to-provide-accurate-real-time-rainfall-estimates-for-improved-flood-warnings\/","url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/2020\/01\/21\/investigation-of-the-ability-of-the-renewed-uk-operational-weather-radar-network-to-provide-accurate-real-time-rainfall-estimates-for-improved-flood-warnings\/","name":"Investigation of the ability of the renewed UK operational weather radar network to provide accurate real-time rainfall estimates for improved flood warnings. - DARE","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-01-21T15:06:20+00:00","dateModified":"2020-01-22T17:49:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/#\/schema\/person\/e0cdff4a2766962bcad80bcfdd6b58d0"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/2020\/01\/21\/investigation-of-the-ability-of-the-renewed-uk-operational-weather-radar-network-to-provide-accurate-real-time-rainfall-estimates-for-improved-flood-warnings\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/2020\/01\/21\/investigation-of-the-ability-of-the-renewed-uk-operational-weather-radar-network-to-provide-accurate-real-time-rainfall-estimates-for-improved-flood-warnings\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/2020\/01\/21\/investigation-of-the-ability-of-the-renewed-uk-operational-weather-radar-network-to-provide-accurate-real-time-rainfall-estimates-for-improved-flood-warnings\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Investigation of the ability of the renewed UK operational weather radar network to provide accurate real-time rainfall estimates for improved flood warnings."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/#website","url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/","name":"DARE","description":"Data Assimilation for the REsilient City","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/#\/schema\/person\/e0cdff4a2766962bcad80bcfdd6b58d0","name":"Jessica Gardner","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8a6d2ee6cf3a71e60790de38cd5aed0ce278defcb8bf720d2c12bd009294ec78?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8a6d2ee6cf3a71e60790de38cd5aed0ce278defcb8bf720d2c12bd009294ec78?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jessica Gardner"},"url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/author\/jessica-gardnerreading-ac-uk\/"}]}},"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1136"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1159,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136\/revisions\/1159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/dare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}