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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2025-5438</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Open-source tools for processing opportunistic rainfall sensor data: An overview of existing tools and the new OpenSense software packages &lt;em&gt;poligrain, pypwsqc&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;mergeplg&lt;/em&gt;</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Chwala</surname>
<given-names>Christian</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4583-3327</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Overeem</surname>
<given-names>Aart</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5550-8141</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Øydvin</surname>
<given-names>Erlend</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Petersson Wårdh</surname>
<given-names>Louise</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3373-7244</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Seidel</surname>
<given-names>Jochen</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3700-6022</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Graf</surname>
<given-names>Maximilian</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2246-1273</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Walraven</surname>
<given-names>Bas</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Covi</surname>
<given-names>Elia</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff9">
<sup>9</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Habi</surname>
<given-names>Hai Victor</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff10">
<sup>10</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Fencl</surname>
<given-names>Martin</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff11">
<sup>11</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>de Vos</surname>
<given-names>Lotte</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-5837</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Giannetti</surname>
<given-names>Filippo</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0043-4098</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff12">
<sup>12</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Green</surname>
<given-names>Amy</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff13">
<sup>13</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>O’Hara</surname>
<given-names>Tess</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff13">
<sup>13</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Blettner</surname>
<given-names>Nico</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Keel</surname>
<given-names>Tom</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9193-5271</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff14">
<sup>14</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Schutz</surname>
<given-names>Georges</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff15">
<sup>15</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>El Hachem</surname>
<given-names>Abbas</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1139-4861</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff16">
<sup>16</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Illich</surname>
<given-names>Nicholas</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Polz</surname>
<given-names>Julius</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5910-3037</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Shit</surname>
<given-names>Taoufiq</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff11">
<sup>11</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kaleta</surname>
<given-names>Lukáš</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff17">
<sup>17</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zulkarnaen</surname>
<given-names>Damaris</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Bareš</surname>
<given-names>Vojtěch</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff11">
<sup>11</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-IFU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Garmisch-Partenkirchen,  Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>R&amp;D Observations and Data Technology, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, Utrechtseweg 297, 3731 GA De Bilt, the Netherlands</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Faculty of Science and Technology, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Division of Water Resources Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University, P.O. Box 118, 22100 Lund, Sweden</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), Folkborgsvägen 17, Norrköping SE-601 76, Sweden</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>Institute for Modelling Hydraulic and Environmental Systems, University of Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff7">
<label>7</label>
<addr-line>Department of Hydrometeorology, Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff8">
<label>8</label>
<addr-line>Department of Water Management, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff9">
<label>9</label>
<addr-line>Hydro-Meteo-Climate Structure, Arpae Emilia-Romagna, Bologna, Italy</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff10">
<label>10</label>
<addr-line>School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff11">
<label>11</label>
<addr-line>Department of Hydraulics and Hydrology, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff12">
<label>12</label>
<addr-line>Department of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, Via G. Caruso 16, 56122 Pisa, Italy</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff13">
<label>13</label>
<addr-line>School of Engineering, Cassie Building, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU United Kingdom</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff14">
<label>14</label>
<addr-line>UK Centre for Ecology &amp; Hydrology (UKCEH), Wallingford, UK</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff15">
<label>15</label>
<addr-line>RTC4Water s. à r. l., Roeser, Luxembourg</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff16">
<label>16</label>
<addr-line>Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute, Karlsruhe, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff17">
<label>17</label>
<addr-line>Department of Telecommunications, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>10</day>
<month>02</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>31</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Christian Chwala et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2025-5438/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2025-5438/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2025-5438/egusphere-2025-5438.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2025-5438/egusphere-2025-5438.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Opportunistic sensors (OS), such as personal weather stations (PWSs), commercial microwave links (CMLs), and satellite microwave links (SMLs) can provide detailed rainfall information near the Earth&apos;s surface, complementary to information from ground-based weather radars and rain gauges from official networks. Due to their opportunistic nature, their data requires dedicated processing and quality control. A variety of open-source tools for these tasks exist. Their interoperability is low, however, and implementation details are too heterogeneous to allow joint community-driven development. Within the COST Action OpenSense (Opportunistic Precipitation Sensing Network) we have set out to improve this situation. Here we first summarize the state of the preexisting open-source tools and then describe the new OpenSense software ecosystem that we built. Specific attention is given to the three new software packages developed within OpenSense: &lt;em&gt;poligrain&lt;/em&gt;, which simplifies common tasks for working with point, line and gridded sensor data; &lt;em&gt;pypwsqc&lt;/em&gt;, which provides several quality control algorithms for PWS data, that were previously available as separate packages; &lt;em&gt;mergeplg&lt;/em&gt;, which contains merging methods for point, line and grid data. These packages, with &lt;em&gt;poligrain&lt;/em&gt; as the foundation, form the OpenSense software ecosystem for which we show an example use case. This software ecosystem shall serve as a community platform for reproducible research and operational integration of opportunistic sensor data for rainfall estimation.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="31"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>European Cooperation in Science and Technology</funding-source>
<award-id>CA20136</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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<back>
</back>
</article>