Iowa Flood Study Radar Data for Satellite Validation

Four mobile X-band polarimetric Doppler weather radars collected high-resolution precipitation observations across central and northeastern Iowa. This dataset was gathered during the Iowa Flood Studies (IFloodS) ground campaign, which ran from April to June 2013, with a core period from May 1 to June 15. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission's Ground Validation program created this data to evaluate satellite rainfall estimates for flood forecasting.

Use Cases

• Validating GPM satellite rainfall estimates using ground-based radar measurements of reflectivity and differential reflectivity.
• Analyzing storm structure and precipitation microphysics for hydrological modeling using polarimetric variables like differential phase and copolar correlation coefficient.
• Studying high-resolution Doppler velocity and spectrum width to understand wind fields within precipitating systems.
• Calibrating radar-based quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) techniques for flood forecasting applications.

Strengths

• Data was collected by four specialized mobile radars, providing multiple high-resolution observation points.
• Includes seven key polarimetric and Doppler variables: reflectivity, velocity, spectrum width, differential reflectivity, differential phase, correlation coefficient, and signal-to-noise ratio.
• Campaign was specifically designed for satellite validation, ensuring targeted data collection over a 2.5-month period.

Limitations

• Exact data volume (row count, file size) is not specified on any platform.
• Conflicting license information: one source lists 'other-license-specified', another lists 'None'.
• Conflicting last update dates: one source shows 2026-03-13, another shows 2013-06 16.

Provenance

Source

GHRC DAAC (Global Hydrology Resource Center Distributed Active Archive Center) / NASA GPM Ground Validation program.

Collection Method

Ground measurements collected by four mobile X-band Polarimetric (XPOL) Doppler weather radars.

Time Range

April 2013 to June 2013

Freshness

2026-03-13 02:03:55.681204

Geography

Central and northeastern Iowa, United States.