Improving the Consistency of Basin-Average Radar and Rain Gauge Rainfall Datasets in Central and South Florida

The intent of this paper is to examine a rain gauge based adjustment technique for basin averaged daily radar-rainfall field estimates on the basis of on-line rainfall measurements from rain gauges located in the Upper and Lower Kissimmee River Basins in South Florida. The rainfall estimates are derived from two radar rainfall algorithms applied on WSR-88D network measurements in Florida. The technique uses a stochastic space-time formulation to predict and remove basin-average systematic radar-gauge differences and assess the bias prediction uncertainty. Application of the bias predictions to adjust radar-rainfall fields for one year of data (2004) yields significant improvements in the consistency between the two radar estimates and rain gauge measurements. Future development includes pilot tests to assess the impact of the technique implementation in hydrologic predictions for selected basins.