Improving Rainfall Measurement in Gauge Poor Regions Thanks to Mobile Telecommunication Networks

Gosset, Marielle; Kunstmann, Harald; Zougmoré, François; Cazenave, Frédéric; Leijnse, H.; Uijlenhoet, R.; Chwala, Christian; Keis, Felix; Doumounia, Ali; Barry, Boubacar; Kacou, Modeste; Alpert, Pinhas; Messer, H.; Rieckermann, Jörg; Hoedjes, J.C.B.

doi:10.1175/bams-d-15-00164.1

Cited by 58 publications

(57 citation statements)

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“…This is particularly interesting for (developing) countries where few surface rainfall observations are available. For instance, (Gosset et al, 2016), who report on a Rain Cell Africa workshop held in Burkina Faso in March 2015, clearly demonstrate the relevance and interest to accelerate the uptake of this new measurement technique on the African continent. Despite the sympathy from scientists and representatives of meteorological services and telecommunication companies, to date no userfriendly computer code for microwave link data processing and rainfall mapping has been made publicly available.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retrieval algorithm for rainfall mapping from microwave links in a cellular communication network

2016

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Abstract. Microwave links in commercial cellular communication networks hold a promise for areal rainfall monitoring and could complement rainfall estimates from ground-based weather radars, rain gauges, and satellites. It has been shown that country-wide ( ≈ 35 500 km 2 ) 15 min rainfall maps can be derived from the signal attenuations of approximately 2400 microwave links in such a network. Here we give a detailed description of the employed rainfall retrieval algorithm. Moreover, the documented, modular, and user-friendly code (a package in the scripting language "R") is made available, including a 2-day data set of approximately 2600 commercial microwave links from the Netherlands. The purpose of this paper is to promote rainfall mapping utilising microwave links from cellular communication networks as an alternative or complementary means for continental-scale rainfall monitoring.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retrieval algorithm for rainfall mapping from microwave links in a cellular communication network

2016

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“…Furthermore, negotiations have been initialized with cell phone providers in Palestine and Burkina Faso (Gosset et al, 2015) to improve the data acquisition of CMLs for rain rate estimation in these datascarce regions. This Appendix describes the OIDs for requesting the received signal level for the CML hardware that was used to record the data shown in Sect.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Real-time data acquisition of commercial microwave link networks for hydrometeorological applications

2016

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Abstract. The usage of data from commercial microwave link (CML) networks for scientific purposes is becoming increasingly popular, in particular for rain rate estimation. However, data acquisition and availability is still a crucial problem and limits research possibilities. To overcome this issue, we have developed an open-source data acquisition system based on the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). It is able to record transmitted and received signal levels of a large number of CMLs simultaneously with a temporal resolution of up to 1 s. We operate this system at Ericsson Germany, acquiring data from 450 CMLs with minutely real-time transfer to our database. Our data acquisition system is not limited to a particular CML hardware model or manufacturer, though. We demonstrate this by running the same system for CMLs of a different manufacturer, operated by an alpine ski resort in Germany. There, the data acquisition is running simultaneously for four CMLs with a temporal resolution of 1 s. We present an overview of our system, describe the details of the necessary SNMP requests and show results from its operational application.

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“…In addition to rainfall monitoring over urban areas 5 (where network densities are generally high), this technique offers much potential for high-resolution measurement in areas where the density of ground-based monitoring networks (i.e. gauges or radars) is typically low, such as in developing countries (Doumounia et al, 2014;Gosset et al, 2016).…”

Section: Signals Of Opportunitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The future of Earth observation in hydrology

McCabe

Rodell

Alsdorf

et al. 2017

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. In just the past 5 years, the field of Earth observation has progressed beyond the offerings of conventional space-agency-based platforms to include a plethora of sensing opportunities afforded by CubeSats, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and smartphone technologies that are being embraced by both for-profit companies and individual researchers. Over the previous decades, space agency efforts have brought forth well-known and immensely useful satellites such as the Landsat series and the Gravity Research and Climate Experiment (GRACE) system, with costs typically of the order of 1 billion dollars per satellite and with concept-to-launch timelines of the order of 2 decades (for new missions). More recently, the proliferation of smartphones has helped to miniaturize sensors and energy requirements, facilitating advances in the use of CubeSats that can be launched by the dozens, while providing ultra-high (3-5 m) resolution sensing of the Earth on a daily basis. Startup companies that did not exist a decade ago now operate more satellites in orbit than any space agency, and at costs that are a mere fraction of traditional satellite missions.With these advances come new space-borne measurements, such as real-time high-definition video for tracking air pollution, storm-cell development, flood propagation, precipitation monitoring, or even for constructing digital surfaces using structure-from-motion techniques. Closer to the surface, measurements from small unmanned drones and tethered balloons have mapped snow depths, floods, and estimated evaporation at sub-metre resolutions, pushing back on spatio-temporal constraints and delivering new process insights. At ground level, precipitation has been measured using signal attenuation between antennae mounted on cell phone towers, while the proliferation of mobile devices has enabled citizen scientists to catalogue photos of environmental conditions, estimate daily average temperatures from battery state, and sense other hydrologically important variables such as channel depths using commercially available wireless devices. Global internet access is being pursued via highaltitude balloons, solar planes, and hundreds of planned satellite launches, providing a means to exploit the "internet of things" as an entirely new measurement domain. Such globalPublished by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. The future of Earth observation in hydrology access will enable real-time collection of data from billions of smartphones or from remote research platforms. This future will produce petabytes of data that can only be accessed via cloud storage and will require new analytical approaches to interpret. The extent to which today's hydrologic models can usefully ingest such massive data volumes is unclear. Nor is it clear whether this deluge of data will be usefully exploited, either because the measurements are superfluous, inconsistent, not accurate enough, or simply because we lack the capacity to process and analyse them. What is apparen...

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Improving Rainfall Measurement in Gauge Poor Regions Thanks to Mobile Telecommunication Networks

Cited by 58 publications

References 9 publications

Retrieval algorithm for rainfall mapping from microwave links in a cellular communication network

Retrieval algorithm for rainfall mapping from microwave links in a cellular communication network

Real-time data acquisition of commercial microwave link networks for hydrometeorological applications

The future of Earth observation in hydrology

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