Status and future direction of operational radar application at KNMI

KNMI operates two C-band Doppler radars (Gematronik Meteor 360 AC). Currently, the reflectivity data are employed operationally for the synthesis of composites of pseudoCAPPI and echotop products.

For the production of pseudoCAPPI images, anomalous propagation clutter is removed from the raw images using a statistical method. Three-hourly estimates of accumulated precipitation are calculated routinely by adding the pseudoCAPPI products. A comparison of daily sums of these estimates to the precipitation data obtained from a dense network of rain gauges has been performed. For the production of echotop maps, an algorithm is used that corrects for errors due to the finite width and sidelobes of the radar beam.

To fully exploit the potential of radar (reflectivity) data, a tool for the detection and display of severe weather phenomena related to convective systems is being developed. As a first step, the development of a product for the detection of summer hail has been completed.

In this paper, the procedure for detection of ground clutter is described briefly and its operational performance is discussed. Furthermore, recent results on radar-gauge comparisons for the KNMI radars are presented. Finally, the results of the extended verification of the hail detection product are highlighted.