An early warning approach for the rapid identification of extreme weather disasters based on phased array dual polarization radar cooperative network data

PLoS One. 2024 Jan 3;19(1):e0296044. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0296044. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

In recent years, X-band phase array dual polarization weather radar technology has matured. The cooperative networking data from X-band phase array dual polarization weather radar have many advantages compared with traditional methods, namely, high spatial and temporal resolution (approximately 70 seconds in one scan, 30 m in radial distance resolution), wide coverages that can compensate for the observation blind spots, and data fusion technology that is used in the observation overlap area to ensure that the observed precipitation data have spatial continuity. Based on the above radar systems, this study proposes an improved hail and lightning weather disaster rapid identification and early warning algorithm. The improved thunderstorm identification, tracking, analysis, and nowcasting (TITAN) algorithm is used to quickly identify three-dimensional strong convective storm cells. Large sample observation experiment data are used to invert the localized hail index (HDR) to identify the hail position. The fuzzy logic method is used to comprehensively determine the probability of lightning occurrence. The comparative analysis experiment shows that, compared with the live observation data from the ground-based automatic station, the hail and lightning disaster weather warning algorithm developed by this study can increase warning times by approximately 7 minutes over the traditional algorithm, and its critical success index (CSI), false alarm ratio (FAR) and omission alarm ratio (OAR) scores are better than those of the traditional method. The average root mean square error (ARMSE) for identifying hail and lightning locations by this improved method is also significantly better than that of traditional methods. We show that our method can provide probabilistic predictions that improve hail and lightning identification, improve the precision of early warning and support operational utility at higher resolutions and with greater lead times that traditional methods struggle to achieve.

MeSH terms

  • Disasters*
  • Extreme Weather*
  • Lightning*
  • Radar
  • Weather

Grants and funding

This work was supported by The Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP) program [grant number 2019QZKK0105]; Science and Technology Planed Program of Sichuan Province [grant number 2021YFS0325]; Key R&D Program of Sichuan, China [grant number 2023YFS0430]; and Key R&D Program of Sichuan, China [grant number 2022YFS0542]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.