Rain gauge data from the diverse sources will be assembled, quality controlled and combined to precipitation maps for various integration times which take into account the varying temporal resolution of the data. Realtime available observations will be delivered in near-real time to be used for an “online evaluation” of the LM(K) forecasts.

— Thorsten Reinhardt 2006/11/21 17:48

All DWD radar products and original 3-D radar measurements will be made available. A quicklook inventory will allow the PQP participants to pick case studies easily. The PQP project VERIPREG (Paulat et al. 2005) will produce hourly precipitation maps from a combination of radar (composite of precipitation scans) and in situ rain gauge data. The PQP project QUEST will use the 3D radar reflectivities to evaluate the forecasted hydrometeor distributions via forward simulation by a polarimetric radar operator.

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1 means: System is up

Range of DWD:
C-Band weather radar (black)
C-Band radar Karlsruhe of FZK (green)
X-Band radar Bonn (blue)
X-band radar MPI Hamburg (blue)
polarimetric C-band radars of DWD Hohenpeissenberg and DLR (red).

— Thorsten Reinhardt 2006/11/28 11:36

Observations of the rain drop size distribution (RDSD) with ground-based disdrometers and vertically pointing Micro Rain Radars (MRR) will be performed. At least 13 will be located at selected sites (see map below) in order to study differences of RDSDs over flat terrain including maritime conditions on one hand and over orographically structured terrain on the other hand. A transect of MRRs will be deployed in the COPS area and coordinated with polarimetric radar (POLDIRAD/DLR) observations during COPS. Examples of actual MRR observations can be viewed here.

Different surface based disdrometers are used as well: 2 Joss Waldvogel Disdrometer (JWD), 3 Optical Disdrometer ODM470, and 4 Parsival Disdrometers. These instruments are based on different physical principle and methods for retrieving DSDs and will thus help to keep the major uncertainty of MRR-based DSDs under control, namely a potential bias due to vertical wind.

— Susanne Crewell 2006/11/23 17:18

The GOP includes 1) a cooperation with European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET) and 2) the use of lidar ceilometers which are based on much simpler techniques compared to research lidars but operate continuously. EARLINET will provide range-resolved aerosol profiles on a regular basis, approximately three times a week. The data (from all EARLINET stations across Europe) will be available in a data base open for the COPS community. These data include the height of the planetary boundary layer, aerosol backscatter and extinction coefficient profiles typically for one or two wavelengths (355 nm / 532 nm). German EARLINET stations include Hamburg, Leipzig, München, and Garmisch. Measurements from lidar ceilometers at more than 100 stations within Germany are available through DWD. Furthermore, data from several institutes (for example Meteorological Institutes in Bonn, Hannover, Kiel, and DLR) will be acquired. It will be investigated whether more stations can archive the backscatter profile in addition to the standard cloud base height.

Continuous observations by two networks will be made available to PQP: The SAFIR (Surveillance et Alerte Foudre par Interférometrie Radioélectrique) total lightning detection system in Northern Germany of the University of Hannover and the joint lightning location system of DLR and University of Munich LINET operating about 15 stations in Southern Germany. They both separate between cloud to ground (CG) and intra cloud (IC) lightnings. Linet can also give the vertical position of lightning.

Meteosat Second Generation (MSG), MODIS and MERIS observations will by available by implementing a near real time (NRT) processing. This will provide an excellent overview of the current weather situation, on a larger scale and for the GOP and COPS area. The information is online (http://wew.met.fu-berlin.de/nrt) with a delay of 2 hours. The SEVIRI instrument on MSG with its 11 spectral channels from 0.6 to 14 μm will be the prime instrument. The calibrated satellite data are processed automatically to provide higher-order, level 2 products, such as water vapor and cloud top pressure. SEVIRI products will be adopted to monitor atmospheric products at meteorological stations within the LMK domain, e.g. Cabauw and Lindenberg, but also at COPS experimental sites, MAP stations and Berlin. In addition to the production of time series, averages of selected regions will be compared to LMK output on a regular, operational basis. Depending on the status of the upcoming satellites CLOUDSAT, CALIPSO, and METOP 1, other satellites might be utilized for validation purposes. Special observations with high resolution about stability indices will be available through EUMETSAT.

The observations from meteorological stations (DWD, Meteorological and Geographical Institutes, research organizations, etc.) provide continuous information on the atmospheric state. In particular we will use data from  DWD observatories (Hohenpeissenberg, Lindenberg); especially at Lindenberg a wealth of remote sensing (radiation, microwave radiometer, ceilometer, Raman lidar, cloud radar, wind profiler, GPS etc) and in situ instrumentation is available as well as 4 radiosoundings per day. The observations will allow the characterization of the atmospheric state (in particular the boundary layer and clouds) as complete as possible.

• Further observatories of diverse operators can provide information from interesting locations (UFS Schneefernerhaus; Schwarzwald Observatories Hartheim and Tuttlingen).

• Observatories of foreign weather services including for example the Cloudnet sites Cabauw, Chilbolton and Palaiseau which provide information on the vertical cloud distribution.

• Meteorological and also geographical institutes operate a rather complete set of instrumentation; as an example the available instruments at the Meteorological Institute Bonn consists of lidar ceilometer, microwave radiometer MICCY, infrared radiometer, micro rain Radar, X-Band Radar, Scintillometer, rain gauges, weather station. This also includes foreign institutes like the IAP Bern.