A rainfall data inter-comparison dataset for Germany

The rainfall data inter-comparison dataset is a collection of precipitation statistics calculated from the hourly nationwide German radar climatology (RADKLIM) and radar online adjustment (RADOLAN) composites provided by the German Weather Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst, DWD), which were combined with rainfall statistics derived from rain gauge data for inter-comparison. Moreover, additional information on parameters that can potentially influence radar data quality, such as the height above sea level, information on wind energy plants and the distance to the next radar station, were included in the dataset.

The dataset consists of two point shapefiles which are readable with all common GIS. It constitutes a spatially highly resolved rainfall statistics geodataset for the period 2006 - 2017, which can be used for statistical rainfall analyses or for the derivation of model inputs. Furthermore, this data collection has the potential to benefit all users who intend to use precipitation data for any purpose in Germany and to identify the rainfall dataset that is best suited for their application by a straightforward comparison of three rainfall datasets without any tedious data processing and georeferencing.

• Spatial extent: Germany
• Spatial Resolution: 1 x 1 km
• Time period: 2006 - 2017
• Data Format: Two point shapefiles
• Compared precipitation datasets: RADKLIM, RADOLAN, rain gauge data
• Selection of calculated precipitation statistics:
  • Annual precipitation sum
  • Mean annual precipitation sum
  • Mean seasonal precipitation sums
  • Number of days exceeding a daily precipitation of 1 mm
  • Number of days exceeding a daily precipitation of 20 mm
  • Mean daily precipitation sum of all days exceeding a precipitation sum of 1 mm
  • Mean daily precipitation sum of all days exceeding a precipitation sum of 20 mm
  • Number of NoData entries

An Excel file with detailed information on all parameters and on original data sources is also included in the dataset.

Original data source URLs:

• RADKLIM (DWD): https://opendata.dwd.de/climate_environment/CDC/grids_germany/hourly/radolan/reproc/2017_002/bin/
• RADOLAN (DWD): ftp://ftp-cdc.dwd.de/pub/CDC/grids_germany/hourly/radolan/historical/bin/
• Rain Gauge Data (DWD): https://opendata.dwd.de/climate_environment/CDC/observations_ germany/climate/1_minute/precipitation/
• Location of wind energy plants (UFZ): https://www.ufz.de/record/dmp/archive/5467/de/
• SRTM DEM (DLR): https://geoservice.dlr.de/egp/