Abstract. The development phase (DP) of the EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility for Support to Operational Hydrology and Water Management (H-SAF) led to the design and implementation of several precipitation products, after 5 yr (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) of activity. Presently, five precipitation estimation algorithms based on data from passive microwave and infrared sensors, on board geostationary and sun-synchronous platforms, function in operational mode at the H-SAF hosting institute to provide near real-time precipitation products at different spatial and temporal resolutions.In order to evaluate the precipitation product accuracy, a validation activity has been established since the beginning of the project. A Precipitation Product Validation Group (PPVG) works in parallel with the development of the estimation algorithms with two aims: to provide the algorithm developers with indications to refine algorithms and products, and to evaluate the error structure to be associated with the operational products.In this paper, the framework of the PPVG is presented: (a) the characteristics of the ground reference data available to H-SAF (i.e. radar and rain gauge networks), (b) the agreed upon validation strategy settled among the eight European countries participating in the PPVG, and (c) the steps of the validation procedures. The quality of the reference data is discussed, and the efforts for its improvement are outlined, with special emphasis on the definition of a ground radar Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. S. Puca et al.:The validation service of the hydrological SAF geostationary products quality map and on the implementation of a suitable rain gauge interpolation algorithm. The work done during the H-SAF development phase has led the PPVG to converge into a common validation procedure among the members, taking advantage of the experience acquired by each one of them in the validation of H-SAF products. The methodology is presented here, indicating the main steps of the validation procedure (ground data quality control, spatial interpolation, upscaling of radar data vs. satellite grid, statistical score evaluation, case study analysis).Finally, an overview of the results is presented, focusing on the monthly statistical indicators, referred to the satellite product performances over different seasons and areas.

Abstract. The EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility on Support to Operational Hydrology and Water Management (H-SAF) provides rainfall estimations based on infrared and microwave satellite sensors on board polar and geostationary satellites. The validation of these satellite estimations is performed by the H-SAF Precipitation Product Validation Group (PPVG). A common validation methodology has been defined inside the PPVG in order to make validation results from several institutes comparable and understandable.

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We present the results of a feasibility study on the possibility of using the OPERA data information model (ODIM) with HDF5 file format implementation [Michelson et. al. 2021] for reprocessing long-term weather radar data series in the context of a small national meteorological service such as the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMU).  ODIM was developed during the Operational Programme on the Exchange of Weather Radar Information (OPERA) under the umbrella of the European Meteorological Services Network, EIG EUMETNET [Saltikoff et al. 2019] to support the exchange of volume radar data between meteorological services and different radar systems. Work was performed in 3 consequent steps: 1. Radar archive consolidation SHMU has been working with radar data since 1965 [Podhorský & Guba 2014], but the level of equipment available didn't allow us to digitally archive such a large amount of data. We were able to extract archived radar from 1998 to the present. Data from earlier periods were archived on analogue media (e.g. paper drawings, photographs) or on special tapes that we cannot read today. More than 50 old data tapes and more than 500 CDs and DVDs have been extracted. The most recent period was stored in the robotic tape library. We will discuss all the problems we encountered during this step. 2. Conversion to ODIM hdf5 files From the archive we extracted data from 4 different radar systems: MRL-5, EEC DWSR92C, Radtec RDR-250GCDP with Gamic signal processor and Selex Meteor 735 CDP. 5 different converters were prepared. The most interesting was the converter for MRL-5 data. It only stores raw data, radar equation has to be applied, noise figure subtracted. The scan was not clearly defined, volumes store all data from start of measurement to end, sampled in any position of the antenna, and we got uncorrected reflectivity for S- and X-band channel, because MRL-5 was classic non-Doppler radar and clutter has to be filtered in processing. 3. Processing For processing, we used "home-made" qRad software running on hpc. It is capable of generating any standard product and making a common composite based on 11+ different quality indices. The clutter map was calculated from the previous 2-3 week period. We had to solve problems with temporal and spatial variability of the input data. The scan repetition time had values of 30, 15, 7.5, 10 and 5 min time. The number of radars varied between 0 and 4. We decided to use only those dates when at least 2 radars were available and covered the whole of Slovakia. As a reference product, the composite of CAPPI 3km was chosen, which provides uniform data for all radars over whole Slovakia. Maps of various statistical variables were calculated from CAPPI 3km composites.