Evaluation of Long-Term Radar-Derived Precipitation for Water Balance Estimates: A Case Study for Multiple Catchments in Saxony, Germany
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
Quality of water balance estimations are strongly dependent on the precipitation input. The key limitation here is typically a lack of spatial representation in precipitation data. Quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) using radar is recognized as capable to significantly enhance the spatial representation of precipitation compared to conventional rain gauge-based methods by calibrating radar pixels with surrounding rain gauges. However, the measured precipitation is often underestimated due to wind drift or funnel evaporation, particularly in mountainous areas. Thus, a post-correction is required before applying radar precipitation in water balance models. Here, we applied the Richter correction for the first time to a radar-based QPE, to model the water balance in ten catchments in Saxony, Germany. The hydrological responses for the period 2001-2017 from the model were validated with discharge observations. The results show that radar data application yielded reliable simulations of water balance (KGE = 0.53 and 0.70 at daily and monthly resolutions, respectively). However, a simple compensation such as the Richter method to conventional precipitation should be used with caution. This study shows that radar-based precipitation has immense potential to advance quality of the precipitation input to distributed hydrologic models not only for flood events but also for climatological analyses.
Details
Original language | English |
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Article number | 204 |
Number of pages | 23 |
Journal | Hydrology |
Volume | 9 |
Issue number | 11 |
Publication status | Published - 20 Nov 2022 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
WOS | 000895072900001 |
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Scopus | 85149490955 |
ORCID | /0000-0002-4246-5290/work/142245182 |
ORCID | /0000-0001-7489-9061/work/142249625 |
ORCID | /0000-0003-3200-7410/work/150885289 |
Keywords
Research priority areas of TU Dresden
DFG Classification of Subject Areas according to Review Boards
Subject groups, research areas, subject areas according to Destatis
Sustainable Development Goals
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Keywords
- Discharge, Radar-based precipitation, Rain gauges, Richter correction, Water balance simulation