scholarly journals River Discharge Simulation in the High Andes of Southern Ecuador Using High-Resolution Radar Observations and Meteorological Station Data

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 2804 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Mejía-Veintimilla ◽  
Pablo Ochoa-Cueva ◽  
Natalia Samaniego-Rojas ◽  
Ricardo Félix ◽  
Juan Arteaga ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
River Discharge ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Meteorological Station ◽  
Hydrological Simulation ◽  
Radar Observations ◽  
Radar Images ◽  
Extreme Precipitation Events ◽  
Station Data ◽  
High Resolution Radar

The prediction of river discharge using hydrological models (HMs) is of utmost importance, especially in basins that provide drinking water or serve as recreation areas, to mitigate damage to civil structures and to prevent the loss of human lives. Therefore, different HMs must be tested to determine their accuracy and usefulness as early warning tools, especially for extreme precipitation events. This study simulated the river discharge in an Andean watershed, for which the distributed HM Runoff Prediction Model (RPM) and the semi-distributed HM Hydrologic Modelling System (HEC-HMS) were applied. As precipitation input data for the RPM model, high-resolution radar observations were used, whereas the HEC-HMS model used the available meteorological station data. The obtained simulations were compared to measured discharges at the outlet of the watershed. The results highlighted the advantages of distributed HM (RPM) in combination with high-resolution radar images, which estimated accurately the discharges in magnitude and time. The statistical analysis showed good to very good accordance between observed and simulated discharge for the RPM model (R2: 0.85–0.92; NSE: 0.77–0.82), whereas for the HEC-HMS model accuracies were lower (R2: 0.68–0.86; NSE: 0.26–0.78). This was not only due to the application of means values for the watershed (HEC-HMS), but also to limited rain gauge information. Generally, station network density in tropical mountain regions is poor, for which reason the high spatiotemporal precipitation variability cannot be detected. For hydrological simulation and forecasting flash floods, as well as for environmental investigations and water resource management, meteorological radars are the better choice. The greater availability of cost-effective systems at the present time also reduces implementation and maintenance costs of dense meteorological station networks.

scholarly journals Analysis of urban rainfall from hourly to seasonal scales using high‐resolution radar observations in the Netherlands

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 822-840 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris Manola ◽  
Gert‐Jan Steeneveld ◽  
Remko Uijlenhoet ◽  
Albert A. M. Holtslag
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Radar Observations ◽  
High Resolution Radar

scholarly journals Reliable Orientation Estimation of Vehicles in High-Resolution Radar Images

2016 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
pp. 2986-2993 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Roos ◽  
Dominik Kellner ◽  
Jurgen Dickmann ◽  
Christian Waldschmidt
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Orientation Estimation ◽  
Radar Images ◽  
High Resolution Radar

scholarly journals Peering Beneath the Powder: Using Radar to Understand Avalanches

Eos ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terri Cook
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Experimental Test ◽  
Test Site ◽  
Radar Images ◽  
Avalanche Behavior ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
High Resolution Radar ◽  
Snow Temperature

High-resolution radar images from Switzerland’s experimental test site show that snow temperature is a key factor in classifying avalanche behavior.

Complementing ERA5 and E-OBS20 with high resolution river discharge

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Hagemann ◽  
Tobias Stacke
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
River Discharge ◽  
River Mouth ◽  
Water Model ◽  
Model Intercomparison ◽  
Station Data ◽  
Intercomparison Project ◽  
Subsurface Runoff

<p>The 0.5° resolution of many global observational datasets is not sufficient for the requirements of current state-of-the-art regional climate model (RCM) simulations over Europe. Here, the ERA5 reanalysis of the ECMWF (C3S 2017) and E-OBS data (Cornes et al. 2018) are frequently used as reference datasets when RCM results are evaluated on resolutions higher than 0.5°. In addition, ERA5 data are also commonly used to force regional ocean models. As ERA data do not comprise river discharges, the lateral forcing of freshwater inflow from land is taken from other data sources, such as station data, runoff climatologies, etc. However, these data are not necessarily consistent with the ERA5 forcing over the ocean surface. If such data are derived from station data, they are only available for specific rivers and not spatially homogeneously distributed for all coastal areas. In addition, they might not be representative for the river mouth if the respective station location is too far away from the river mouth, which is often the case.</p><p>In order to allow a consistent forcing of river discharges and evaluation of simulated hydrological fluxes, we extended ERA5 and E-OBS v20.0e with high resolution river discharge. This also allows a consistent assessment of hydrological changes from these two datasets. The discharge was simulated with the recently developed 5 Min. version of the Hydrological discharge (HD) model (Hagemann et al., submitted). Note that for the development of this HD model version, no river specific parameter adjustments were conducted so that the HD model is generally applicable for climate change studies and over ungauged catchments.</p><p>The HD model requires gridded fields of surface and subsurface runoff as input with a daily temporal resolution or higher. As no large-scale observations of these variables exist, they need to be calculated by a land surface scheme or hydrology model using observed or re-analyzed meteorological data. Here, we used the HydroPy global hydrological model, which is the successor of the MPI-HM model (Stacke and Hagemann 2012). The latter has contributed to the WATCH Water Model Intercomparison Project (WaterMIP; Haddeland et al. 2011) and the inter-sectoral impact model intercomparison project (ISIMIP; Warszawski et al. 2014). Note that ERA5 also comprises archived fields of surface and subsurface runoff, but it turned out that its separation of total runoff is not suitable to generate adequate river discharges with the HD model. In our presentation, we evaluate the simulated discharge using various metrics and consider significant discharge trends over Europe.</p><p><strong>References</strong></p><p>C3S (2017): ERA5: Fifth generation of ECMWF atmospheric reanalyses of the global climate. Copernicus Climate Change Service Climate Data Store (CDS)</p><p>Cornes, R., et al. (2018) J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 123, doi:10.1029/2017JD028200</p><p>Haddeland, I., et al. (2011). J. Hydrometeorol. 12, doi: 10.1175/2011jhm1324.1</p><p>Hagemann, S., T. Stacke and H. Ho-Hagemann, High resolution discharge simulations over Europe and the Baltic Sea catchment. Frontiers in Earth Sci., submitted.</p><p>Stacke, T. and Hagemann, S. (2012). Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 16, doi: 10.5194/hess-16-2915-2012</p><p>Warszawski, L., et al. (2014) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 111, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1312330110</p>

scholarly journals Mapping Paleohydrology of the Ephemeral Kuiseb River, Namibia, from Radar Remote Sensing

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1441
Author(s):  
Philippe Paillou ◽  
Sylvia Lopez ◽  
Eugene Marais ◽  
Klaus Scipal
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Radar Images ◽  
The North ◽  
Digital Elevation ◽  
Ephemeral Rivers ◽  
High Resolution Radar ◽  
Northern Edge ◽  
Ground Penetrating

The Kuiseb River is one of the major ephemeral rivers of Western Namibia, setting the northern limit of the Namib Sand Sea and outflowing in the Atlantic Ocean at Walvis Bay. Such ephemeral rivers are of the highest importance for the country since they are related both to recent past climatic conditions and to potential water resources. Using high-resolution radar images from the Japanese ALOS-2 satellite, we mapped for the first time the numerous channels hidden under the surface aeolian sediments: while the non-permanent tributaries of the Kuiseb River appear north of its present-day bed, a wide paleochannel system running westward, assumed by previous studies, could be clearly observed in the interdune valleys in the south. Radar-detected channels were studied during fieldwork in May 2019, which produced both subsurface ground-penetrating radar profiles and high-resolution drone-generated digital elevation models. It allowed us to confirm the existence of the “Paleo–Kuiseb” drainage system, a remnant of the Holocene history of the Kuiseb River, moving northward under the progression of the Namib Sand Sea. Our observations also contribute to the explanation of the young age of the linear dunes at the northern edge of the Namib Sand Sea, which are currently active and are pushing the Kuiseb River course toward the north.

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