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

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

NEXRAD Overview Weather Surveillance Radar – 1988 Doppler Next Generation Radar Development started in 1960s Deployment started in 1988 First WSR-88D 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 WSR-88D – Dates and other info

NEXRAD Overview 155 Sites (145 CONUS) Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii, Alaska, etc. Radar Coverage in CONUS

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

WSR-88D 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 – 39.9TB Annual Volume Ingested – 72TB NCDC Radar Archives and Request NEXRAD Level III 2,421 Requests 378 Unique Users Total Volume serviced – 1.4TB Annual Volume Ingested – 2TB

Precipitation Products Precipitation products available at NCDC Name Span Time Space How to get NEXRAD Level II 1995 – present 5min 1deg x 1km Online order NEXRAD Level III 5min to Hourly 1deg x 1km – 4km nominal MPR 1996 – present Hourly 4km HRAP THREDDS Q2 – QPE-SUMS 2005 – present 5 minute 1 deg x 1 km GPCP 1979 - present Monthly, Daily 1 deg – 2.5 deg ftp DSI 3200 1900 – present Daily In-situ DSI 3240 1970 – present CRN 2000 – present In –situ HADS Model Data Varies THREDDS - NOMADS Radar- Based Satellite- Based Precipitation Products at NCDC In-Situ Model

WSR-88D Radar Data Services 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/radar/radarresources.html Spatial Search Temporal Search File Search Order Data NEXRAD Data Access

Software Applications Java NEXRAD Viewer http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/radar/radarresources.html Examples and Figures from Steve Ansari

Software Applications Java NEXRAD Viewer Filter NEXRAD Export Data Export NEXRAD to shapefiles, ESRI Grids, GrADS (coming soon: NetCDF, GeoTIFF & HDF) Export Simple Math Results Examples and Figures from Steve Ansari

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 GPCP work – Tom Smith and others at CICS/ESSIC

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

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

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 real-time) 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 MPR Justification

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

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

Precipitation products can help meet Phase II Objectives 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 Connect high resolution precip to GEWEX

WGPRN Data Format Data Transmission Archive Data Access 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 Issues related to radar networks in a common system

WGPRN Common Data Model Visualization File Format &Analysis #1 CDM NetCDF file File Format #2 OpenDAP Server File Format #N WCS Service

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

Conclusions 150 NEXRAD sites Data format, organization, management Provide for high resolution precipitation estimates Space scales 4km 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/radar/radarresources.html