Rainfall rates estimated from X-Band radar observations during FESSTVaL 2021

This data set contains rainfall rates estimated from X-band radar (WRX) observations during the Field Experiment on Sub-mesoscale Spatio-Temporal Variability in Lindenberg (FESSTVaL) from June to August 2021. This single-polarized, local area weather radar was located at the boundary layer field site of the German Weather Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst - DWD) at Falkenberg. The radar operated at an elevation angle of 2.3° with a high temporal 30 s, range 60 m, and sampling 1° resolution refining observations of the German nationwide C-band radars within a 20 km scan radius. The high-resolution rainfall rates are available as hourly NetCDF-files.

Quality: 
Several sources of radar-based errors were adjusted gradually affecting the precipitation estimate, e.g. the radar calibration, alignment, attenuation, noise, non-meteorological echoes. However, a few azimuth angles of the measurements are affected by beam blockage. The WRX’s reflectivity values are calibrated and the derived rainfall rates are evaluated to measurements of a micro rain radar (MRR) located at the Lindenberg Meteorological Observatory – Richard Assmann Observatory (MOL-RAO) of the German Weather Service (DWD). The rainfall rates of the WRX and MRR are in good agreement.

Instruments: 
local area weather radar / X-band weather radar FLK

Funding:

• partly funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany‘s Excellence Strategy – EXC 2037 'CLICCS - Climate, Climatic Change, and Society' – Project Number: 390683824, contribution to the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) of Universität Hamburg;  
• partly funded by the Hans Ertel Center for Weather Research within the project ‘Advancing the Representation of Convection across Scales (ARCS) - FKZ 4818DWDP1B.