Quantitative precipitation estimation using commercial microwave links

There is an urgent need for high-quality rainfall observations with high spatial and temporal resolutions in catchment hydrology, particularly in urban hydrology. Weather radars are in principle wellsuited for that purpose, but often need adjustment. Usually, only a few raingauge measurements are available as input for hydrological models or to adjust the radar data in real-time. X-band radar data, specifically interesting for urban hydrology, are often not available. Previous studies have shown that (commercial) microwave link data are suitable to calculate path-averaged rainfall intensities and, therefore, are a potentially valuable source of additional rainfall information. This is further explored in this study using data from 321 links from a commercial cellular telephone network in the Netherlands. Some preliminary results are presented concerning the derivation of rainfall maps and the correction of radar data using microwave link data.