Real time rainfall estimation using microwave signals of cellular communication networks: 
a case study of Faisalabad, Pakistan

Afzal, Muhammad Sohail; Shah, Syed Hamid Hussain; Cheema, Muhammad Jehanzeb Masud; Ahmad, Riaz

doi:10.5194/hess-2017-740

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…Recently, rain evaluation for three months against data from nearby gauges was found to be possible for 116 links Commercial Microwave Links (CMLs) located in the city of São Paulo, Brazil (Rios Gaona et al ., 2018). Also, 35 MWLs in Faisalaba, Pakistan, were used for observing near‐surface rainfall at the 20 temporal resolutions of 15 min (Sohail Afzal et al ., 2018). In Korea, eight MWLs operating at frequencies between 6 and 8 GHz and with path lengths of 5.7–37.4 km, traversing the city of Seoul, were used to detect rainfall and estimate path‐averaged rainfall rates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A rain estimation model based on microwave signal attenuation measurements in the city of Ioannina, Greece

Christofilakis

Tatsis

Lolis

et al. 2020

Meteorological Applications

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Rain monitoring through signal attenuation has been a significant concern for the scientific community over the last decade. The lowest L‐, S‐ and C‐bands in the microwave spectrum are full of potential for environmental monitoring devices. It has not been extensively proven whether signal attenuation can be used for rain estimation throughout the microwave spectrum in the region of 1–6 GHz. The study derives a power‐law rain estimation model by validating the one year data for the amount of rain and signal attenuation at the lowest limit of the S‐band. This is achieved by a prototype accurate experimental set‐up in a laboratory environment at the campus of the University of Ioannina, northwest Greece. A comparison with global rain attenuation models as well as measurements near this frequency band are also presented and discussed.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A rain estimation model based on microwave signal attenuation measurements in the city of Ioannina, Greece

Christofilakis

Tatsis

Lolis

et al. 2020

Meteorological Applications

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“…RAINLINK has been used for CML rainfall estimation in various regions, i.e. Brazil, Italy, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka (Overeem et al, 2016a, b;Sohail Afzal et al, 2018;Rios Gaona et al, 2018;de Vos et al, 2019;GSMA, 2019;Roversi et al, 2020), and has been calibrated deterministically (Overeem et al, 2011(Overeem et al, , 2013(Overeem et al, , 2016ade Vos et al, 2019). With the new optimization method we provide a better underpinning of parameter values for this CML rainfall retrieval algorithm.…”

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confidence: 99%

Rainfall retrieval algorithm for commercial microwave links: stochastic calibration

Wolff¹,

Overeem

Leijnse

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Abstract. During the last decade, rainfall monitoring using signal level data from commercial microwave links (CMLs) in cellular communication networks has been proposed as a complementary way to estimate rainfall for large areas. Path-averaged rainfall is retrieved between the transmitting and receiving cellular antenna of a CML. One rainfall estimation algorithm for CMLs is RAINLINK, which has been employed in different regions (e.g., Brazil, Italy, the Netherlands, and Pakistan) with satisfactory results. However, the RAINLINK parameters have been calibrated for a unique optimum solution, which is inconsistent with the fact that multiple similar or equivalent solutions may exist due to uncertainties in algorithm structure, input data, and parameters. Here, we show how CML rainfall estimates can be improved by calibrating all parameters of the algorithm systematically and simultaneously with the stochastic optimization method Particle Swarm Optimisation, which is used for the numerical maximization of the objective function. An open dataset of approximately 2,800 sub-links of minimum and maximum received signal levels over 15-minute intervals covering the Netherlands (~35,500 km2) is employed, where 12 days are used for calibration and 3 months for validation. A gauge-adjusted radar rainfall dataset is utilized as reference. Verification of path-average daily rainfall shows a reasonable improvement for the stochastically calibrated parameters with respect to RAINLINK's default parameter settings. Results further improve when averaged over the Netherlands. Moreover, the method provides a better underpinning of the chosen parameter values and is therefore of general interest for calibration of RAINLINK's parameters for other climates and cellular communication networks.

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“…Liquid hydrometeors within a cloud emit microwave signals that can be detected with a radiometer (e.g. Spencer et al, 1989). In addition to these passive sensors, satellite-borne radars can be used to measure precipitation in the same way as the ground-based weather radar (e.g.…”

Section: Satellitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fortunately, many telecom operators have successfully been convinced as shown by the large number of studies on CML datasets from many international locations, e.g. in Italy (Alberoni et al, 2018), Brazil (Rios Gaona et al, 2018), Pakistan (Sohail Afzal et al, 2018), Burkina Faso (Doumounia et al, 2014), Germany (Chwala et al, 2018), Israel (Liberman et al, 2014), and many others.…”

Section: Commercial Microwave Linksmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study shows that the RAINLINK-package is applicable to instanteously sampled datasets. Apart from studies in Brazil (Rios Gaona et al, 2018), Italy (Alberoni et al, 2018) and Pakistan (Sohail Afzal et al, 2018) RAINLINK has mainly been applied to Dutch datasets. To advance the process toward operational application and upscaling of this technique, long time series should be analyzed for other networks and climates.…”

Section: Future Prospectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rainfall monitoring with opportunistic sensors

Vos¹

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Propositions 1. Understanding uncertainties in high-quantity low-quality observations is only of interest to scientists. (this thesis) 2. Opportunistic sensors cannot replace traditional dedicated rainfall sensing techniques. (this thesis) 3. Faulty scientific hypotheses are not necessarily disproven by accurate observations.4. If a scientist makes a discovery, but is not able to communicate it to other scientists, there has been no scientific advancement. The idea that academic success is measured by how busy youare is a misconception, particularly destructive to young scientists. The large-scale educational exchange between strangers viainternet is a proof of altruism. 7. Everyone's opinion matters, but only opinions of informed individuals should matter in decision making. Propositions belonging to the thesis, entitledRainfall monitoring with opportunistic sensors Lotte de Vos

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Real time rainfall estimation using microwave signals of cellular communication networks: a case study of Faisalabad, Pakistan

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

A rain estimation model based on microwave signal attenuation measurements in the city of Ioannina, Greece

A rain estimation model based on microwave signal attenuation measurements in the city of Ioannina, Greece

Rainfall retrieval algorithm for commercial microwave links: stochastic calibration

Rainfall monitoring with opportunistic sensors

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