Precipitation RADOLAN from the DWD radar network
Topics
- Access
- Description
- Parameters
- Coverage, spatial and temporal resolution
- Data quality
- Contact person
- References
- Data citation and License
Access
UNRESTRICTED:
- Get Radar data from DWD via HTTP: ASCII | Binary
- Access to 5-minute radar data from the SAMD project via OPeNDAP
RESTRICTED: This link to the data set is only available for a restricted user group. The data set is only accessible in CEN/MPI net or accessible from external nets with a customer account. Please contact ICDC if you would like to access this data from outside the network.
- Access to hourly radar data (ICDC) via OPeNDAP
- Data access to 5-minute data via file system: /data/icdc/atmosphere/samd/data/drnet/00/rr/l3/hdfd/miub/
- Data access to hourly data via file system: /data/icdc/atmosphere/radolan/data/hourly-rainfall-rate/
Description
"The routine procedure RADOLAN (radar online calibration) delivers comprehensive, spatially and temporally high-resolution, quantitative precipitation data in real time for Germany from the combination of the hourly values measured selectively at the precipitation stations with the precipitation recording of the 17 weather radars. ... With radar the near-surface precipitation cannot be measured directly, only the signals reflected by the hydrometeors in the atmosphere. For a quantitatively correct, radar-based precipitation analysis, calibration using precipitation gauges (ombrometers) on the ground is necessary. Approved radar precipitation data represent a synthesis of the two data sources radar and ground measuring network and combine the advantages of both measuring techniques. ... These data are not measured values, but represent a best estimate of the precipitation. "(Source: DWD data record description in the references). See also the RADOLAN project page at the DWD in the references.
UHH/CEN/AJB
The original data is available at DWD in binary or ASCII format, but the Netcdf format is often required for easier use. As part of the SAMD archive, ICDC already offers the 5-minute rainfall rate (rr) and radar reflectivity factor (dbz) in NetCDF format, which are mentioned here as a supplement. For internal use, this time series has now been extended with the hourly values of the precipitation rate from ICDC. The data provided by ICDC here do not contain any geographic coordinates. Instead, the geographic allocation given by the DWD in the RADOLAN composite format description (German only, see references) applies to the 900 x 900 point grid with 1 km resolution. The data from the SAMD project with the same spatial resolution already come with geographic coordinates.
Last update of data set at ICDC: May, 2022
Parameters
| Name | Unit |
|---|---|
| rain rate rr | mm |
Coverage, spatial and temporal resolution
Period and temporal resolution:
- 01/2007 - 03/2019, 5 minutes
- 01/01/2020 - ongoing, hourly
Coverage and spatial resolution:
- Germany
- 900 x 900 grid points with 1 km resolution
Format:
- NetCDF
Data quality
The quality assessment of the DWD reads as follows: "Verifications of the data from 2013 to 2016 compared to the daily values measured by the stations show a median absolute daily deviation of 0.761 mm / day on average. This is, compared to the value of 2.390 mm / day for the original radar data , that were not calibrated at stations, a significant improvement in quality. " (Source: data set description of the DWD in tne references)
Contact
Deutscher Wetterdienst
CDC - Vertrieb Klima und Umwelt
Frankfurter Straße 135
63067 Offenbach
Annika Jahnke-Bornemann
ICDC / CEN / Universität Hamburg
E-Mail: annika.jahnke-bornemann"AT"uni-hamburg.de
References
Literature:
- DWD, RADOLAN data set description (pdf, not barrier free)
- DWD, RADOLAN composite description (German only, pdf, not barrier free)
Websites:
Data citation, License, and Acknowledgments
Please cite the data as follows:
DWD Climate Data Center (CDC), Aktuelle stündliche RADOLAN-Raster der Niederschlagshöhe (binär),Version.
and with the following acknowledgments:
Thanks to ICDC, CEN, University of Hamburg for data support.
License
The license rights specified by the DWD apply. The following applies to the precipitation data in the SAMD project: For non-commercial use only. This data is subject to the SAMD data policy and in the SAMD Observation Data Product standard.