Independent Assessment of Incremental Complexity in NWS Multisensor Precipitation Estimator Algorithms
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 18, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper presents a comprehensive intercomparison analysis of different radar-based multisensor precipitation products generated operationally by the National Weather Service (NWS) Multisensor Precipitation Estimator (MPE) algorithm from the Weather Surveillance Radar–1988 Doppler version and concurrent rain gauge data. The analysis provides close insight into different effects of the increasing degree of complexitzy in the MPE algorithms. First, a gauge-only product produced by the MPE algorithm was assessed. Then six MPE products were analyzed: a radar-only product, a mean-field bias-adjusted product, a local bias-adjusted product, two products that are based on merging the bias-adjusted products with gauge observations, and a final product that includes human intervention by NWS forecasters. Data from a dense, carefully maintained experimental rain gauge cluster are used as an independent surface reference. A number of summary and conditional statistics are applied to the product intercomparisons. The results reported in this paper show that the most effective improvement of the rainfall products comes from applying the mean-field bias adjustment to the radar-only product. The analysis demonstrates that, for the current study site, some best-intended schemes for the optimal merging of radar and rain gauge data processing did not necessarily lead to clear improvements and, in some respects, caused accuracy degradation in the final products. This behavior by the MPE merging schemes is possibly attributed to the rather poor density of operational rain gauges that need to be available in real time for the implementation of such schemes. Future research is required to examine whether this behavior persists in other regions that may have better coverage and availability of operational rain gauges.
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Acknowledgments
This study was funded in part by the LaSPACE Research Enhancement Awards program under the agreement NASA/LEQSF(2005-2010)-LaSPACE and the DART NSF-BORSF program. The authors thank Jeff Graschel at LMRFC for providing the different MPE products and for numerous insightful discussions. Paul Tilles of NWS/OHD is acknowledged for providing the list of the MPE parameters.
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 18 • Issue 2 • February 2013
Pages: 143 - 155
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 30, 2011
Accepted: Apr 24, 2012
Published online: Apr 26, 2012
Published in print: Feb 1, 2013
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