Effect of R-Z Relationships Derived from Disdrometer Data on Radar Rainfall Estimation during the Heavy Rain Event on 5 July 2005

Abstract

The R-Z relationship is one of important error factors to determine the accuracy of radar rainfall estimation. In this study, we have explored the effect of the R-Z relationships derived from disdrometer data in estimating the radar rainfall. The heavy rain event that produced flooding in St-Remi, Quebec, Canada has been occurred. We have tried to investigate the severity of rain for this event using high temporal (2.5 min) and spatial resolution (1 o by 250 m) radar data obtained from the McGill S-band radar. Radar data revealed that the heavy rain cells pass directly over St-Remi while the coarse raingauge network was not sufficient to detect this rain event. The maximum 30 min (1 h) accumulation reaches about 39 (42) mm in St-Remi. During the rain event, the two disdrometers (POSS; Precipitation Occurrence Sensor System) were available: One used for the reflectivity calibration by comparing disdrometer Z and radar Z and the other for deriving disdrometric R-Z relationships. The result shows the significant improvement with the disdrometric reflectivity-dependent R-Z relationships against the climatological R-Z relationship. The bias in radar rain estimation is reduced from +12% to −2% and the root-mean squared error from 16 to 10% for daily accumulation. Using the estimated radar rainfall rate with disdrometric R-Z relationships, the flood event was well captured with proper timing and amount.