CAOS rain rate and reflectivity data set of 6 disdrometres and 2 micro rain radars at 3 different heights at 6 stations in the Attert catchment, Luxembourg from Oct 2012 - Sept 2016

Cite as:

Neuper, Malte; Ehret, Uwe (2018): CAOS rain rate and reflectivity data set of 6 disdrometres and 2 micro rain radars at 3 different heights at 6 stations in the Attert catchment, Luxembourg from Oct 2012 - Sept 2016. GFZ Data Services. https://doi.org/10.5880/FIDGEO.2018.070

Status

I N R E V I E W : Neuper, Malte; Ehret, Uwe (2018): CAOS rain rate and reflectivity data set of 6 disdrometres and 2 micro rain radars at 3 different heights at 6 stations in the Attert catchment, Luxembourg from Oct 2012 - Sept 2016. GFZ Data Services. https://doi.org/10.5880/FIDGEO.2018.070

Abstract

The dataset consist of time series of hourly rain rates and mean radar reflectivity factor (herein after referred to as reflectivity) near the ground, 100 meter and 1500 meter above the ground at six locations in the Attert catchment in Luxembourg. The time series cover a time span of 4 years (from the 1st of October 2012 tor the 30th of September 2016). The dataset was derived from drop size measurements we conducted at six stations with six laser optical disdrometers and two micro rain radars (MRR) within the CAOS Project (DFG Research Group: From Catchments as Organized Systems to Models based on Functional Units (FOR 1598). The time series of rain rates and radar reflectivity factors (reflectivities) were calculated (derived) via the 3.5th and 6th statistical moments of the drop size distributions using the particular raw data of drop sizes and fall velocities. The primary reason for the measurements was to improve radar based quantitative precipitation estimation in general and the conversion of the reflectivity Z (measured by operational weather radar) to a rain rate R at the ground via the so-called Z-R relation within a mesoscale catchment.

GENERAL CONVENTIONS:
• Time extent: 1.10.2012 00:00 – 30.09.2016 23:00 (35064 values)
• Time reference: UTC • Time stamp: end
• Time resolution: 1h
• Time series are equidistant and gapless
• Missing values: NaN
• Delimiter: ; (semicolon)
• decimal separator: . (point)

STATION LOCATIONS:
Name; Abbreviation; Latitude (WGS-84); Longitude(WGS-84); height a.s.l; Instrumentation
Oberpallen;
OPA; 49.73201°; 5.84712°;287 m; disdrometer Useldange;
USL; 49.76738°; 5.96756°; 280 m; disdrometer and MRR Ell;
ELL; 49.76558°; 5.84401°; 290 m; disdrometer Post;
POS; 49.75394°; 5.75481°; 345 m; disdrometer Petit-Nobressart;
PIN; 49.77938°; 5.80526°; 374 m; disdrometer and MRR Hostert-Folschette;
HOF; 49.81267°; 5.87008°; 435 m; disdrometer

HEADER – VARIABLES DESCRIPTION:
Name - description:
Date-UTC – Date as yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM (4 digit year-2 digit month – 2 digit day 2 digit hour: 2 digit minute)
Time Zone: UTC. Decade – tenner day of the year (that is 1st to 10th of January = 1 ; 11th to 20th of January = 2 ; 21th to 30th of January = 3 ; … 21st to 31st of December = 36.
Month – Month of the year (1: January, 2: February, 3:March,…, 12: December).
dBZ0_DIS_ELL – reflectivity at ground level (in dBZ) at the station Ell derived from disdrometer measurements.
dBZ0_DIS_HOF – reflectivity at ground level (in dBZ) at the station Hostert-Folschette derived from disdrometer measurements.
dBZ0_DIS_OPA – reflectivity at ground level (in dBZ) at the station Oberpallen derived from disdrometer measurements.
dBZ0_DIS_PIN – reflectivity at ground level (in dBZ) at the station Petit-Nobressart derived from disdrometer measurements.
dBZ0_DIS_POS – reflectivity at ground level (in dBZ) at the station Post derived from disdrometer measurements.
dBZ0_DIS_USL – reflectivity at ground level (in dBZ) at the station Useldange derived from disdrometer measurements.
dBZ100_MRR_PIN – reflectivity 100 m above ground (in dBZ) at the station Petit-Nobressart derived from MRR measurements.
dBZ100_MRR_USL – reflectivity 100 m above ground (in dBZ) at the station Useldange derived from MRR measurements.
dBZ1500_MRR_PIN – reflectivity 1500 m above ground (in dBZ) at the station Petit-Nobressart derived from MRR measurements.
dBZ1500_MRR_USL – reflectivity 1500 m above ground (in dBZ) at the station Useldange derived from MRR measurements.
RR0_DIS_ELL – rain rate at ground level (in mm/h) at the station Ell derived from disdrometer measurements.
RR0_DIS_HOF – rain rate at ground level (in mm/h) at the station Hostert-Folschette derived from disdrometer measurements.
RR0_DIS_OPA – rain rate at ground level (in mm/h) at the station Oberpallen derived from disdrometer measurements.
RR0_DIS_PIN– rain rate at ground level (in mm/h) at the station Petit-Nobressart derived from disdrometer measurements.
RR0_DIS_POS – rain rate at ground level (in mm/h) at the station Post derived from disdrometer measurements.
RR0_DIS_USL – rain rate at ground level (in mm/h) at the station Useldange derived from disdrometer measurements.
RR100_MRR_PIN – rain rate 100 m above ground (in mm/h) at the station Petit-Nobressart derived from MRR measurements.
RR100_MRR_USL – rain rate 100 m above ground (in mm/h) at the station Useldange derived from MRR measurements.
RR1500_MRR_PIN – rain rate 1500 m above ground (in mm/h) at the station Petit-Nobressart derived from MRR measurements.
RR1500_MRR_USL – rain rate 1500 m above ground (in mm/h) at the station Useldange derived from MRR measurements.

The instruments were maintained and cleaned monthly. The data was quality checked. Cases with solid precipitation were excluded using the output form the Pasivel² present weather sensor software, which especially was needed since disdrometer data was contaminated by cobwebs. But since the present weather analyzer classified these (due to their slow movement within the wind) as snow, these then could easily be eliminated.

Methods

DISDROMETER:
We deployed six second generation OTT Particle Size and Velocity (PARSIVEL², see Löffler-Mang and Joss, 2000 - https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0426(2000)017<0130:AODFMS>2.0.CO;2) optical disdrometers in the study area to measure drop size distributions at ground level in 1-minute resolution. Two were located at the same sites as the MRRs (Useldange and Petit-Nobressart). The others were placed such as to both capture the hydroclimatic variations in the study area and to cover it as uniformly as possible. We applied a quality control to the raw data as described by Friedrich et al. (2013 - https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-12-00254.1 and https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-12-00116.1 ), converted the filtered data to drop-size concentrations per unit air volume to make them comparable to weather radar and MRR data, then converted them to reflectivity and rain rate using the 3.5th and 6th statistical moments of the drop size distributions and finally took 1-hour averages and sums thereof.

MRR: From two vertical pointing K-band METEK micro rain radars (MRR) (Löffler-Mang et al. 1999 - https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0426(1999)016<0379:OTPOAL>2.0.CO;2 and Peters et al. 2002 - Rain observations with a vertically looking Micro Rain Radar (MRR). Boreal Env. Res. 7: 353–362, 2002) measurements located at the sites Useldange and Petit-Nobressart drop size spectra were retrieved at 1500 meter and 100 meter above ground . We operated the MRR's at 100 vertical meters and 10 seconds temporal resolution, but for reasons of storage and processing efficiency did all further processing on 1-minute aggregations thereof. The raw Doppler spectra were transformed to drop size distributions via the drop size – fall velocity relation given in Atlas et al (1973 - https://doi.org/10.1029/RG011i001p00001). From the drop size distributions the rain rate and the reflectivity were calculated using the 3.5th and the 6th statistical moments of the drop size distributions. In doing so we assumed the vertical velocity of the air to be negligible.

Authors

Neuper, Malte;Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) - Institute for Water and River Basin Management - Chair of Hydrology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Ehret, Uwe;Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) - Institute for Water and River Basin Management - Chair of Hydrology, Karlsruhe, Germany

Contact

Neuper, Malte (Meteorologist) ; Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) - Institute for Water and River Basin Management - Chair of Hydrology; ➦
Ehret, Uwe (Senior Researcher, Deputy Head) ; Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) - Institute for Water and River Basin Management - Chair of Hydrology; ➦

Keywords

disdrometer, MRR, micro rain radar, reflectivity, Radar meteorology, quantitative precipitation estimation, QPE, CAOS, Luxembourg, Attert, drop size distribution, DSD, Catchment as organized systems, KIT, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Hydrology, Meteorology, Radar, rain rate, on average to the ground directed hydrometeor fluxes, atmosphere