Journal of the Civil Engineering Forum
Vol. 5 No. 3 (September 2019)

Correcting Radar Rainfall Estimates Based on Ground Elevation Function

Roby Hambali (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, INDONESIA Department of Civil Engineering, Bangka Belitung University, INDONESIA)
Djoko Legono (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, INDONESIA)
Rachmad Jayadi (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, INDONESIA)



Article Info

Publish Date
19 Sep 2019

Abstract

X-band radar gives several advantages for quantitative rainfall estimation, involving higher spatial and temporal resolution, also the ability to reduce attenuation effects and hardware calibration errors. However, the estimates error due to attenuation in heavy rainfall condition cannot be avoided. In the mountainous region, the impact of topography is considered to contribute to radar rainfall estimates error. To have more reliable estimated radar rainfall to be used in various applications, a rainfall estimates correction needs to be applied. This paper discusses evaluation and correction techniques for radar rainfall estimates based on ground elevation function. The G/R ratio is used as a primary method in the correction process. The novel approach proposed in this study is the use of correction factor derived from the relationship between Log (G/R) parameter and elevation difference between radar and rain gauge stations. A total of 4590 pairs of rainfall data from X-band MP radar and 15 rain gauge stations in the Mt. Merapi region were used in evaluation and correction process. The results show the correction method based on the elevation function is relatively good in correcting radar rainfall depth with values of Log (G/R) decreased up to 81.1%, particularly for light rainfall (≤ 20 mm/hour) condition. Also, the method is simple to apply in a real-time system.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

jcef

Publisher

Subject

Civil Engineering, Building, Construction & Architecture Environmental Science

Description

Journal of the Civil Engineering Forum (JCEF) is a four-monthly journal on Civil Engineering and Environmental related sciences. The journal was established in 1992 as Forum Teknik Sipil, a six-monthly journal published in Bahasa Indonesia, where the first publication was issued as Volume I/1 - ...