Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-551
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-551
11 May 2023
 | 11 May 2023

Exploiting radar polarimetry for nowcasting thunderstorm hazards using deep learning

Nathalie Rombeek, Jussi Leinonen, and Ulrich Hamann

Abstract. Severe convective weather events, such as hail, lightning and heavy rainfall pose a great threat to humans and cause a considerable amount of economic damage. Nowcasting convective storms can provide warning signals and mitigate the impact of these storms. Dual-polarization weather radars are a crucial source of information for nowcasting severe convective events; nevertheless, they are most often not considered in nowcasting. These radars provide signatures of different hydrometeors. This work presents the importance of polarimetric variables as an additional data source for nowcasting thunderstorm hazards using an existing neural network architecture with convolutional and recurrent layers. This network has a common framework, which enables nowcasting of hail, lightning and heavy rainfall for lead times up to 60 min with a 5 min resolution. The study area is covered by the Swiss operational radar network, which consists of five operational polarimetric C-band radars. Results indicate that including polarimetric variables and quality indices improve the accuracy of nowcasting heavy precipitation and lightning, with the largest improvement found for heavy precipitation.

Journal article(s) based on this preprint

19 Jan 2024
Exploiting radar polarimetry for nowcasting thunderstorm hazards using deep learning
Nathalie Rombeek, Jussi Leinonen, and Ulrich Hamann
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 133–144, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-133-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-133-2024, 2024
Short summary
Nathalie Rombeek, Jussi Leinonen, and Ulrich Hamann

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-551', Anonymous Referee #1, 09 Jul 2023
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Ulrich Hamann, 30 Oct 2023
  • RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-551', Anonymous Referee #2, 10 Aug 2023
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Ulrich Hamann, 30 Oct 2023

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-551', Anonymous Referee #1, 09 Jul 2023
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Ulrich Hamann, 30 Oct 2023
  • RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-551', Anonymous Referee #2, 10 Aug 2023
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Ulrich Hamann, 30 Oct 2023

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload
ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (02 Nov 2023) by Gregor C. Leckebusch
AR by Ulrich Hamann on behalf of the Authors (03 Nov 2023)  Author's response   Author's tracked changes   Manuscript 
ED: Publish as is (20 Nov 2023) by Gregor C. Leckebusch
AR by Nathalie Rombeek on behalf of the Authors (23 Nov 2023)

Journal article(s) based on this preprint

19 Jan 2024
Exploiting radar polarimetry for nowcasting thunderstorm hazards using deep learning
Nathalie Rombeek, Jussi Leinonen, and Ulrich Hamann
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 133–144, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-133-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-133-2024, 2024
Short summary
Nathalie Rombeek, Jussi Leinonen, and Ulrich Hamann

Data sets

Data archive for Exploiting radar polarimetry for nowcasting thunderstorm hazards using deep learning Nathalie Rombeek, Jussi Leinonen, and Ulrich Hamann https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7760740

Model code and software

GitHub repository c4dl-polar Nathalie Rombeek, Jussi Leinonen, and Ulrich Hamann https://github.com/MeteoSwiss/c4dl-polar/

Nathalie Rombeek, Jussi Leinonen, and Ulrich Hamann

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Short summary
Severe weather, such as hail, lightning and heavy rainfall can be hazardous to humans and property. Dual-polarization weather radars provide crucial information to forecast these events by detecting precipitation types. This study analyzes the importance of dual-polarization data for predicting severe weather during the next 60 min using an existing deep learning model. The results indicate that including these variables improves the accuracy of predicting heavy rainfall and lightning.