Rainfall Field Reconstruction by Opportunistic Use of the Rain-Induced Attenuation on Microwave Satellite Signals: The July 2021 Extreme Rain Event in Germany as a Case Study

 

SCORE project partners from UNIPI, MBI and CNR presented a paper at the 2022 IEEE 2nd Ukrainian Microwave Week. It is available in open access. 

Abstract

This paper presents a practical application of an opportunistic technique for the estimation of rainfall intensity and accumulated precipitation. The proposed technique is based upon signal strength measurements made by commercial-grade interactive satellite terminals. By applying some processing, the rain-induced attenuation on the microwave downlink from the satellite is first evaluated; then the rain attenuation is eventually mapped into a rainfall rate estimate via a tropospheric model. This methodology has been applied to a test area of 30×30 km2 around the city of Dortmund (North Rhine-Westphalia, upper basin of Ermscher river), for the heavy rain event that devastated western Germany in July, 2021. A rainfall map on this area is obtained from the measurements collected by a set of satellite terminals deployed in the region, and successfully compared with a map obtained with a conventional weather radar.

References

Title: Rainfall Field Reconstruction by Opportunistic Use of the Rain-Induced Attenuation on Microwave Satellite Signals: The July 2021 Extreme Rain Event in Germany as a Case Study

Authors: Sapienza, Fabiola, Giacomo Bacci, Filippo Giannetti, Vincenzo Lottici, Antonio Colicelli, Attilio Vaccaro, Michele Gammone, et al

Cite as: Sapienza, Fabiola, Giacomo Bacci, Filippo Giannetti, Vincenzo Lottici, Antonio Colicelli, Attilio Vaccaro, Michele Gammone, et al. ‘Rainfall Field Reconstruction by Opportunistic Use of the Rain-induced Attenuation on Microwave Satellite Signals: The July 2021 Extreme Rain Event in Germany as a Case Study’. Zenodo, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1109/UkrMW58013.2022.10037149

 

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