Cokriging radar‐rainfall and rain gage data

Abstract

An ordinary cokriging procedure has been developed to optimally merge rainfall data from radars and standard rain gages. The radar‐rainfall data are given in digitized form. The covariance matrices required to perform cokriging are computed from single realization data, using the ergodicity assumption. Since the ground truth and the error structure of the radar data are unknown, parameterization of the covariance between radar data and the true rainfall is required. The sensitivity of the procedure to that parameterization is analyzed within a controlled simulation experiment. The experiment is based on a hypothesized error structure for the rainfall measurements. The effect of measurement noise and network density is examined. The usefulness of the procedure to remove the bias in radar is tested. Daily data are used.