Radar Rainfall Estimation

Abstract

Radar-derived rainfall estimation is one of the most significant recent advances in hydrologic engineering and practice. This chapter describes common rainfall interpolation techniques, including Thiessen polygons, inverse distance squared weighting, and kriging. It also shows a rainfall “surface” interpolated from rainfall observed at gauge locations using the Thiessen polygon technique. Distributed hydrologic models are particularly well suited to utilizing radar rainfall. The National Centers for Environmental Information Climate Data Online provides access to NCDC’s archive of global historical weather and climate data in hourly, daily, monthly, seasonal, and yearly time steps. The chapter also presents an overview of the book’s key concepts.