Reanalysis of multi-year high-resolution X-band weather radar observations in Hamburg

Abstract

Abstract. This paper presents an open-access data set of reanalysed radar reflectivities and rainfall rates at sub-kilometre spatial and minute temporal scales. Variability at these scales is a blind spot for both operational rain gauge networks and operational radar networks. In the urban area of Hamburg, precipitation measurements of a single-polarized X-band weather radar operating at high temporal (30 s), range (60 m), and azimuthal sampling (1°) resolutions are made available for a period of more than 8 years. We describe in detail the reanalysis of the raw radar data, outline the radar performance for the years 2013 to 2021, and discuss open issues and limitations of the data set. Several sources of radar-based errors were adjusted gradually, affecting the radar reflectivity and rainfall measurements, e.g. noise, alignment, non-meteorological echoes, radar calibration, and attenuation. The deployment of additional vertically pointing micro rain radars yields drop size distributions at the radar beam height, which effectively reduces errors concerning the radar calibration and attenuation correction and monitors the radar data quality. A statistical evaluation revealed that X-band radar reflectivities and rainfall rates are in very good agreement with the micro rain radar measurements. Moreover, the analyses of rainfall patterns shown for an event and accumulated rainfall of several months prove the quality of the data set. The provided radar reflectivities facilitate studies on attenuation correction and the derivation of further weather radar products, like an improved rainfall rate. The rainfall rates themselves can be used for studies on the spatial and temporal scales of precipitation and hydrological research, e.g. input data for high-resolution modelling, in an urban area. The radar reflectivities and rainfall rates are available at https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/LAWR_UHH_HHG_v2 (Burgemeister et al., 2024).