The ensemble of applications for the blending of sensors
measurements presented in this study adopts the disdrometer
Fig. 2. Representation of the X-band weather radar (a) and the disdrometer (b) installed in the monitoring system considered in this study.
Table 1
X-band radar characteristics.
Parameter Value
Transmitted frequency 9.41 ± 0.03 GHz
Peak power 10 kW
Pulse length 600 ns
Pulse repetition frequency 800 Hz
Antenna information Parabolic with fixed elevation (2),
3.6 half power beam width, 34 dB gain
Table 2
Disdrometer characteristics.
Parameter Value
Optical sensor wavelength 780 nm
Particle size range 0.2–5 mm (liquid precipitation),
0.2–25 mm (solid precipitation)
Particle velocity range 0.2–20 m s1
Measurement time aggregation
interval setting
60 min
Precipitation intensity range 0.001–1200 mm h1
Radar reflectivity range 9.9–99 ± 20% dBZ
F. Lo Conti et al. / Journal of Hydrology 531 (2015) 508–522 511
measurements for the calibration of reflectivity retrieved by the
radar, either for the raw radar measurements and rainfall intensities. A further final correction is implemented through rain gauges
measurements. The ensemble of applications to merge disdrometer and rain gauge network data with weather radar measurements
is schematically represented in Fig. 3. Although each single subprocedure has been already diffusely explored, the adaptation of
them to an operative framework devoted to the monitoring of a
small area, using a X-band radar associated with a dedicated disdrometer and a high density rain gauge local network, constitutes
a field of applications where more attention has to be paid.