Despite the several sources of inaccuracy, commercial microwave links (CML) have been recently exploited to estimate the average rainfall intensity along the radio path from signal attenuation. Validating these measurements against "ground truth" from conventional rainfall sensors, as rain gauges, is a challenging issue due to the different spatial sampling involved. Here, we assess the performance of a network of CML as opportunistic rainfall sensors in a challenging mountainous environment located in Northern Italy. The benchmark dataset was provided by an operational network of rain gauges and by three disdrometers. Moreover, disdrometer data were used to establish an accurate relationship between path attenuation and rainfall intensity. A new method was developed for assessing CML: time series of rainfall occurrence and rainfall depth, representative of CML radio path, were derived from the nearby rain gauges and disdrometers and compared with the same quantities gathered from the CML. It turns out that, over the very short integration times considered (10 min), CML perform well in detecting rainfall, whereas quantitative rainfall estimates may have large discrepancies.
Keywords: commercial microwave links; disdrometers; microwave propagation; rain attenuation; rain gauges; rainfall; rainfall sensors.