Radar Echo Top Height Composites for the Netherlands at 5-Minute Intervals

An archive of gridded radar echo top height composites over the Netherlands and surrounding areas. The data are generated from 15 radar scans by two radars located in Herwijnen and Den Helder, with a temporal resolution of 5 minutes. Data are archived by the Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties in daily .tar files.

Use Cases

• Nowcasting severe weather events based on high-frequency radar scans.
• Analyzing vertical development of storm clouds based on echo top height data.
• Training ML models for precipitation estimation based on radar-derived composites.
• Studying spatial and temporal patterns of convective activity over the Netherlands.

Strengths

• High temporal resolution of 5 minutes, suitable for tracking rapid weather changes.
• Data sourced from two operational radars, providing spatial coverage over the Netherlands.
• Archived in a structured daily format, facilitating chronological analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and total dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties

Collection Method

Based on 15 radar scans from two radars in Herwijnen and Den Helder.

Time Range

Archive period is unspecified.

Freshness

Update frequency is likely 5 minutes, but archive recency is unknown.

Geography

Netherlands and surrounding area.