Tropical rainfall monitoring with commercial microwave links in Sri Lanka

Aart Overeem; Hidde Leijnse; Thomas van Leth; Linda Bogerd; Jan Priebe; Daniele Tricarico; Arjan Marten Droste; Remko Uijlenhoet

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac0fa6

Tropical rainfall monitoring with commercial microwave links in Sri Lanka

Aart Overeem^*, Hidde Leijnse, Thomas van Leth, Linda Bogerd, Jan Priebe, Daniele Tricarico, Arjan Marten Droste, Remko Uijlenhoet

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Commercial microwave links (CMLs) from cellular telecommunication networks can provide a valuable "opportunistic" source of high-resolution space-time rainfall information, complementing traditional in-situ measurement devices (rain gauges, disdrometers) and remote sensors (weather radars, satellites). Their greatest potential lies in areas with low gauge densities and lack of weather radars, often in developing countries with a subtropical or tropical climate and generally large spatial rainfall variability. Here, the open-source R package RAINLINK is employed to retrieve CML rainfall maps covering the majority of Sri Lanka for a 3.5-month period based on CML data from on average 1140 link paths. These are compared locally to hourly and daily rain gauge data, as well as to rainfall maps from the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar on board the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory satellite. The potential of CMLs for real-time tropical rainfall monitoring is demonstrated.

Original language	English
Article number	074058
Journal	Environmental Research Letters
Volume	16
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac0fa6
Publication status	Published - 16 Jul 2021

Keywords

Commercial microwave links
Global precipitation measurement mission
Hydrometeorology
Opportunistic sensing
Rainfall monitoring
Remote sensing

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1088/1748-9326/ac0fa6Licence: CC BY

https://edepot.wur.nl/551316Licence: CC BY

Gridded rainfall maps retrieved from commercial microwave link (CML) data from Sri Lanka
Overeem, A. (Creator), Wageningen University & Research, 5 Mar 2021
DOI: 10.4121/14166539
Dataset

Cite this

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title = "Tropical rainfall monitoring with commercial microwave links in Sri Lanka",

abstract = "Commercial microwave links (CMLs) from cellular telecommunication networks can provide a valuable {"}opportunistic{"} source of high-resolution space-time rainfall information, complementing traditional in-situ measurement devices (rain gauges, disdrometers) and remote sensors (weather radars, satellites). Their greatest potential lies in areas with low gauge densities and lack of weather radars, often in developing countries with a subtropical or tropical climate and generally large spatial rainfall variability. Here, the open-source R package RAINLINK is employed to retrieve CML rainfall maps covering the majority of Sri Lanka for a 3.5-month period based on CML data from on average 1140 link paths. These are compared locally to hourly and daily rain gauge data, as well as to rainfall maps from the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar on board the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory satellite. The potential of CMLs for real-time tropical rainfall monitoring is demonstrated.",

keywords = "Commercial microwave links, Global precipitation measurement mission, Hydrometeorology, Opportunistic sensing, Rainfall monitoring, Remote sensing",

author = "Aart Overeem and Hidde Leijnse and {van Leth}, Thomas and Linda Bogerd and Jan Priebe and Daniele Tricarico and Droste, {Arjan Marten} and Remko Uijlenhoet",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Tropical rainfall monitoring with commercial microwave links in Sri Lanka

AU - Overeem, Aart

AU - Leijnse, Hidde

AU - van Leth, Thomas

AU - Bogerd, Linda

AU - Priebe, Jan

AU - Tricarico, Daniele

AU - Droste, Arjan Marten

AU - Uijlenhoet, Remko

PY - 2021/7/16

Y1 - 2021/7/16

N2 - Commercial microwave links (CMLs) from cellular telecommunication networks can provide a valuable "opportunistic" source of high-resolution space-time rainfall information, complementing traditional in-situ measurement devices (rain gauges, disdrometers) and remote sensors (weather radars, satellites). Their greatest potential lies in areas with low gauge densities and lack of weather radars, often in developing countries with a subtropical or tropical climate and generally large spatial rainfall variability. Here, the open-source R package RAINLINK is employed to retrieve CML rainfall maps covering the majority of Sri Lanka for a 3.5-month period based on CML data from on average 1140 link paths. These are compared locally to hourly and daily rain gauge data, as well as to rainfall maps from the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar on board the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory satellite. The potential of CMLs for real-time tropical rainfall monitoring is demonstrated.

AB - Commercial microwave links (CMLs) from cellular telecommunication networks can provide a valuable "opportunistic" source of high-resolution space-time rainfall information, complementing traditional in-situ measurement devices (rain gauges, disdrometers) and remote sensors (weather radars, satellites). Their greatest potential lies in areas with low gauge densities and lack of weather radars, often in developing countries with a subtropical or tropical climate and generally large spatial rainfall variability. Here, the open-source R package RAINLINK is employed to retrieve CML rainfall maps covering the majority of Sri Lanka for a 3.5-month period based on CML data from on average 1140 link paths. These are compared locally to hourly and daily rain gauge data, as well as to rainfall maps from the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar on board the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory satellite. The potential of CMLs for real-time tropical rainfall monitoring is demonstrated.

KW - Commercial microwave links

KW - Global precipitation measurement mission

KW - Hydrometeorology

KW - Opportunistic sensing

KW - Rainfall monitoring

KW - Remote sensing

U2 - 10.1088/1748-9326/ac0fa6

DO - 10.1088/1748-9326/ac0fa6

M3 - Article

SN - 1748-9326

VL - 16

JO - Environmental Research Letters

JF - Environmental Research Letters

IS - 7

M1 - 074058

ER -

Tropical rainfall monitoring with commercial microwave links in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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Datasets

Gridded rainfall maps retrieved from commercial microwave link (CML) data from Sri Lanka

Cite this