Hydrometeorological application of a microwave link: 2. Precipitation

Leijnse, H.; Uijlenhoet, R.; Stricker, J.N.M.

doi:10.1029/2006wr004989

Cited by 69 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The International Telecommunication Union recommends values of the coefficients a and b for a range of frequencies, to be applied globally (21). These coefficients depend relatively little on temperature and drop size distribution (22). The use of cellular communication networks for rainfall measurement fits into a broader development where sensors are used for monitoring environmental variables for which they have not specifically been designed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Country-wide rainfall maps from cellular communication networks

Overeem

Leijnse

Uijlenhoet

2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

241

274

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Accurate and timely surface precipitation measurements are crucial for water resources management, agriculture, weather prediction, climate research, as well as ground validation of satellite-based precipitation estimates. However, the majority of the land surface of the earth lacks such data, and in many parts of the world the density of surface precipitation gauging networks is even rapidly declining. This development can potentially be counteracted by using received signal level data from the enormous number of microwave links used worldwide in commercial cellular communication networks. Along such links, radio signals propagate from a transmitting antenna at one base station to a receiving antenna at another base station. Rain-induced attenuation and, subsequently, path-averaged rainfall intensity can be retrieved from the signal's attenuation between transmitter and receiver. Here, we show how one such a network can be used to retrieve the space-time dynamics of rainfall for an entire country (The Netherlands, ∼35,500 km 2 ), based on an unprecedented number of links (∼2,400) and a rainfall retrieval algorithm that can be applied in real time. This demonstrates the potential of such networks for real-time rainfall monitoring, in particular in those parts of the world where networks of dedicated ground-based rainfall sensors are often virtually absent.hydrometeorology | remote sensing

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Country-wide rainfall maps from cellular communication networks

Overeem

Leijnse

Uijlenhoet

2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

241

274

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“…A research link is particularly useful when the microwave frequency, path length, and antenna cover are representative of the links in a cellular communication network. Finally, see, for instance, Leijnse et al (2007bLeijnse et al ( , 2008 and Schleiss et al (2013) for other wet antenna attenuation correction methods.…”

Section: Wet Antenna Attenuation and Sampling Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

Retrieval algorithm for rainfall mapping from microwave links in a cellular communication network

2016

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Abstract. Microwave links in commercial cellular communication networks hold a promise for areal rainfall monitoring and could complement rainfall estimates from ground-based weather radars, rain gauges, and satellites. It has been shown that country-wide ( ≈ 35 500 km 2 ) 15 min rainfall maps can be derived from the signal attenuations of approximately 2400 microwave links in such a network. Here we give a detailed description of the employed rainfall retrieval algorithm. Moreover, the documented, modular, and user-friendly code (a package in the scripting language "R") is made available, including a 2-day data set of approximately 2600 commercial microwave links from the Netherlands. The purpose of this paper is to promote rainfall mapping utilising microwave links from cellular communication networks as an alternative or complementary means for continental-scale rainfall monitoring.

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“…Other measurements with instruments like microwave links (Leijnse et al, 2007) and disdrometers (Joss and Waldvogel, 1977) offer alternative methods for measuring rainfall, but are more expensive and do not measure the spatial variability for an entire catchment area. Weather radars are able to measure spatial variability of rainfall at different spatial resolutions depending on wavelength and antenna size and measure at typical intervals of 5 to 15 min for ground based systems and with an interval of 3 h or more for satellites (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climatology of daily rainfall semi-variance in The Netherlands

Beek

Leijnse

Torfs

et al. 2011

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Rain gauges can offer high quality rainfall measurements at their locations. Networks of rain gauges can offer better insight into the space-time variability of rainfall, but they tend to be too widely spaced for accurate estimates between points. While remote sensing systems, such as radars and networks of microwave links, can offer good insight in the spatial variability of rainfall they tend to have more problems in identifying the correct rain amounts at the ground. A way to estimate the variability of rainfall between gauge points is to interpolate between them using fitted variograms. If a dense rain gauge network is lacking it is difficult to estimate variograms accurately. In this paper a 30-year dataset of daily rain accumulations gathered at 29 automatic weather stations operated by KNMI (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute) and a one-year dataset of 10 gauges in a network with a radius of 5 km around CESAR (Cabauw Experimental Site for Atmospheric Research) are employed to estimate variograms. Fitted variogram parameters are shown to vary according to season, following simple cosine functions. Semi-variances at short ranges during winter and spring tend to be underestimated, but semi-variances during summer and autumn are well predicted.

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Hydrometeorological application of a microwave link: 2. Precipitation

Cited by 69 publications

References 25 publications

Country-wide rainfall maps from cellular communication networks

Country-wide rainfall maps from cellular communication networks

Retrieval algorithm for rainfall mapping from microwave links in a cellular communication network

Climatology of daily rainfall semi-variance in The Netherlands

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