Effect of threshold on the comparison of radar and rain gauge rain rate

Abstract

In this study, the effect of threshold applied to the radar rain rate on the comparison of the radar and rain gauge rain rate was theoretically examined. The result derived was also evaluated theoretically, using the Bernoulli random field, and empirically, using Gwanaksan Radar data. The results are summarized as follows. (1) In the application to the Bernoulli random field, it was found that the comparison of the radar and rain gauge rain rate with threshold does not introduce any systematic bias. (2) The same results could also be derived in the application to Gwanaksan Radar data. In all cases with several radar bin sizes and thresholds considered, the bias was estimated to be far less than 10% of the mean of the rain gauge rain rate. (3) However, in the comparison with threshold applied to both the radar and rain gauge rain rate, the bias was estimated to be higher than 20%. That is, the systematic bias was introduced. This result indicates that the comparison with threshold applied to both the radar and rain gauge rain rate should not be used.