NEXRAD Data and Products at NCDC National Climatic

NEXRAD Data and Products at NCDC National Climatic Data Center Brian Nelson John Bates Steve Ansari Stephen Del Greco NOAA/NESDIS 1

Outline • Brief Overview of NEXRAD • Data at NCDC • Products at NCDC • Applications (software) • Product development • GEWEX connection • Working Group on Precipitation Radar Networks 2

NEXRAD Overview Weather Surveillance Radar – 1988 Doppler – Next Generation Radar – Development started in 1960 s – Deployment started in 1988 – First WSR-88 D Site in 1990 Norman Ok – Last Site in 1997 in Indiana – Most Sites have been operational since 1995/1996 –~$5 million/ site – ~500 GB/radar/year 3

NEXRAD Overview • 155 Sites (145 CONUS) • Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii, Alaska, etc. 4

NEXRAD Data Level II • Reflectivity • Spectral Width • Notch Velocity Volume Scans • 1 o x 1 km • 5 -6 minutes rainfall mode 5 Level III • 20 + Products • Reflectivities • Radial Velocities • Wind Profile • Vertical Integrated Liquid • Surface Rainfall • Precipitation Derived Products • Polar and Rectangular Gridded • From 5, 6 minute to Hourly and Storm Event

WSR-88 D Radar Data Services NCDC Radar Archives: Entire NEXRAD Period of Record: • 1991 – Present • 1. 5 Petabytes – 334, 652 DVDs • Increases at 480 Gigabytes/Day • Potential increase to 6, 656 Gigabytes/Day NEXRAD Level II 4, 786 Requests 658 Unique Users Total Volume serviced – 39. 9 TB Annual Volume Ingested – 72 TB NEXRAD Level III 2, 421 Requests 378 Unique Users Total Volume serviced – 1. 4 TB Annual Volume Ingested – 2 TB 6

Precipitation Products Precipitation products available at NCDC Radar. Based Satellite. Based In-Situ Model 7 Name Span Time Space How to get NEXRAD Level II 1995 – present 5 min 1 deg x 1 km Online order NEXRAD Level III 1995 – present 5 min to Hourly 1 deg x 1 km – 4 km nominal Online order MPR 1996 – present Hourly 4 km HRAP THREDDS Q 2 – QPESUMS 2005 – present 5 minute 1 deg x 1 km Online order GPCP 1979 - present Monthly, Daily 1 deg – 2. 5 deg ftp DSI 3200 1900 – present Daily In-situ Online order DSI 3240 1970 – present Hourly In-situ Online order CRN 2000 – present Hourly In –situ Online order HADS 1996 – present Hourly In-situ Online order Model Data Varies THREDDS NOMADS

WSR-88 D Radar Data Services include: Direct access to NEXRAD Digital Data, Data Visualization, Analysis and Export Tools via the NCDC radar resources web page URL: http: //www. ncdc. noaa. gov/oa/radarresources. html Spatial Search Temporal Search File Search Order Data 8

Software Applications Java NEXRAD Viewer http: //www. ncdc. noaa. gov/oa/radarresources. html 9

Software Applications Java NEXRAD Viewer • Filter NEXRAD Export Data • Export NEXRAD to shapefiles, ESRI Grids, Gr. ADS (coming soon: Net. CDF, Geo. TIFF & HDF) • Export Simple Math Results 10

High-Resolution Microwave-Based Precipitation Analysis R&D Quarter degree spatial, daily temporal analysis (Tom Smith, Ralph Ferraro, Yin, and others) Microwave-based precipitation AMSU, SSMI, AMSR-E, TRMM satellites, and gauge data May augment with IR data to fill gaps Latest MW algorithms for consistency Developed an OI of MW and gauge observations Estimation of error and scale OI statistics Bias-adjustment method may be applied to product 11

NOAA Multi-sensor QPE – Vision Rain Gauge Data Multisensor Real-Time Precipitation Multisensor Reanalysis (MPR) NWS QPE NCDC OAR/NSSL Radar Satellite NOAA Data Multisensor QPE Products & NESDIS/ORA Services Other OAR Labs External Partners NWP Model Output Data 12 Lightning Data

Complete Rain Gauge Data Multi-Sensor Precipitation REANALYSIS Additional NWP Model Output WSR-88 D Level II Data Rain Gauge Data NCDC Archive* CRAFT Additional Satellite Data National Multisensor Precipitation Reanalysis National Reflectivity Mosaic NWP Model Output National Multisensor QPE Lightning Data NMQ Satellite Data * Level II and Level III 13 Reanalysis Products Real-Time Products Customers REAL-TIME ANALYSIS

Multi-Sensor Precipitation REANALYSIS Why precipitation? Critical climate variable through water cycle Critical weather and water variable Why multisensor? Improves accuracy, resolution, coverage Why reanalysis? Affords more complete and better quality-controlled input data, and “best” scientific algorithms available Can provide consistent high-resolution high-quality products Why now? High-resolution high-quality precipitation data (both historical and realtime) critically needed for water management … among others. A decade of operational experience with real-time multisensor quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) Experience with limited-scope/scale multisensor precipitation reanalysis National Mosaic and Quantitative Precipitation Estimation (NMQ) Project 14

Multi-Sensor Precipitation REANALYSIS MPR Multi-sensor product High Resolution Unbiased Continental U. S Applications Drought Flood Management Flash Flood Prediction Water Supply Transportation Emergency Management Agriculture Debris Flows Ecosystems Management Hydrologic Design Research 15 Customers NWS NOAA Federal Agencies Tribal Agencies State Agencies Local Agencies Private Sector Academia Hydrologic, Environmental Engineers

Multi-Sensor Precipitation REANALYSIS Research to Operations Reanalysis Research Regional Product Development CONUS Product Distribution Customer Feedback 2005 2006 2007 Operational ? New Data Sources Product Re-Development Product Dissemination – THREDDS Data Server http: //eclipse. ncdc. noaa. gov: 9090/thredds/dods. C/radar/catalog. html 16

NEXRAD and GEWEX Precipitation products can help meet Phase II Objectives • Research quality data sets – • Biases addressed and Uncertainty characterized Energy and Water Cycle contribution to Climate – • Major input to Energy and Water Budget studies Space-Time characteristics of predictability of key variables – • Data resolution affords for assessing space-time characteristics Seasonal prediction of water and energy cycle variability – • Long term allows for intra and inter annual studies Assess climate prediction and global change – Can be input or benchmark for climate studies 17

WGPRN Determine the feasibility of producing common precipitation products from radar networks for a common time period. • Data Format • Data Transmission • Archive • Data Access • Resolution (Space and Time) • Algorithms 18

WGPRN Common Data Model Visualization &Analysis File Format #1 Net. CDF file Format #2 CDM Open. DAP Server File Format #N 19 WCS Service

WGPRN Possibilities and Associated Issues • Band • C, X, S etc. • Attenuation • Doppler Capabilities • Yes, No • Severe Weather • Data Processing • Radar Product Generator • Internal Standard • Base Data • Level II data (Z, V, W) • Variables • Data resolution • 1 o by 1 km • File size • Data Transmission • NOAAPort • Data Transmission • Data format • Standards • CDM • Data Archive • National Archive Center • Central Location Example at NCDC • Agreements with Canada, Mexico, Korea 20

Conclusions • 150 NEXRAD sites – Data format, organization, management • Provide for high resolution precipitation estimates – Space scales 4 km and less – Temporal scales hourly and less • Archive is 10+ years – Allows longer term investigations – Current Reanalysis project • CONUS to other Continental-Scale implementations – Common Data Format – Data Archive – Data Transmission – Data Accessibility http: //www. ncdc. noaa. gov/oa/radarresources. html 21