With a very modest investment in computer hardware and the open-source local data manager (LDM) software from University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Unidata Program Center, a researcher can receive a variety of NEXRAD Level III rainfall products and the unprocessed Level II data in real-time from most NEXRAD radars in the USA. Alternatively, one can receive such data from the National Climatic Data Center in Ashville, NC. Still, significant obstacles remain in order to unlock the full potential of the data. One set of obstacles is related to effective management of multi-terabyte datasets. A second set of obstacles, for hydrologists and hydrometeorologists in particular, is that the NEXRAD Level III products are not well suited for applications in hydrology. There is a strong need for the generation of high-quality products directly from the Level II data with well-documented steps that include quality control, removal of false echoes, rainfall estimation algorithms, coordinate conversion, georeferencing and integration with GIS. For hydrologists it is imperative that these procedures are basin-centered as opposed to radar-centered. The authors describe the Hydro-NEXRAD system that addresses the above challenges. With support from the National Science Foundation through its ITR program, the authors have developed a basin-centered framework for addressing all these issues in a comprehensive manner, tailored specifically for use of NEXRAD data in hydrology and hydrometeorology.
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Research Article|
April 29 2010
Towards better utilization of NEXRAD data in hydrology: an overview of Hydro-NEXRAD
Witold F. Krajewski;
1IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
E-mail: [email protected]
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Anton Kruger;
Anton Kruger
1IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
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James A. Smith;
James A. Smith
2Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
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Ramon Lawrence;
Ramon Lawrence
5Computer Science, University of British Columbia, Okanagan, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
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Charles Gunyon;
Charles Gunyon
1IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
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Radoslaw Goska;
Radoslaw Goska
1IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
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Bong-Chul Seo;
Bong-Chul Seo
1IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
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Piotr Domaszczynski;
Piotr Domaszczynski
1IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
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Mary Lynn Baeck;
Mary Lynn Baeck
2Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
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Mohan K. Ramamurthy;
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Mohan K. Ramamurthy
3Unidata Program Center, UCAR, Boulder, CO 80307, USA
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Jeffrey Weber;
Jeffrey Weber
3Unidata Program Center, UCAR, Boulder, CO 80307, USA
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A. Allen Bradley;
A. Allen Bradley
1IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
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Stephen A. DelGreco;
Stephen A. DelGreco
4National Climatic Data Center, Ashville, NC 28801, USA
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Matthias Steiner
Matthias Steiner
6National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80301, USA
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Journal of Hydroinformatics (2011) 13 (2): 255–266.
Article history
Received:
July 29 2009
Accepted:
December 11 2009
Citation
Witold F. Krajewski, Anton Kruger, James A. Smith, Ramon Lawrence, Charles Gunyon, Radoslaw Goska, Bong-Chul Seo, Piotr Domaszczynski, Mary Lynn Baeck, Mohan K. Ramamurthy, Jeffrey Weber, A. Allen Bradley, Stephen A. DelGreco, Matthias Steiner; Towards better utilization of NEXRAD data in hydrology: an overview of Hydro-NEXRAD. Journal of Hydroinformatics 1 March 2011; 13 (2): 255–266. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/hydro.2010.056
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