Not listed QUANTITATIVE PRECIPITATION ESTIMATION (QPE) IN MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS REMAINS A CHALLENGING TASK OWING TO ITS HIGH SPATIOTEMPORAL VARIABILITY. SATELLITE-BASED RADAR OBSERVATIONS AT HIGH RESOLUTION HAVE THE BEST POTENTIAL TO CAPTURE THE SPATIAL PATTERNS OF PRECIPITATION BUT THERE IS HIGH UNCERTAINTY IN THE INTERPRETATION OF LOW-LEVEL MEASUREMENTS DUE TO GROUND CLUTTER EFFECTS OBSERVING GEOMETRY AND SUB-GRID SCALE VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL HETEROGENEITY OF PRECIPITATION SYSTEMS THAT RESULT FROM INTERACTIONS AMONG OROGRAPHIC CLOUDS AND PROPAGATING STORM SYSTEMS. IN THE HIGH ELEVATION TROPICS AND IN MIDDLE MOUNTAINS EVERYWHERE THE LANDSCAPE IS OFTEN IMMERSED IN MULTI-LAYERED CLOUD SYSTEMS THAT MODIFY PRECIPITATION SIGNIFICANTLY AT LOW LEVELS IN A COMPLEX MANNER DEPENDING ON TIME OF DAY AND LOCATION THAT IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE CLASSICAL UNDERSTANDING OF OROGRAPHIC PRECIPITATION ENHANCEMENT WITH ELEVATION AND ARE NOT EASILY PARAMETERIZED OR CORRECTED FOR IN QPE ALGORITHMS. THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO CHARACTERIZE AND ELUCIDATE THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF UNCERTAINTY IN GPM DPR QPE IN MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS AND DEVELOP AN OPERATIONAL ERROR CORRECTION FRAMEWORK FOR OROGRAPHIC PRECIPITATION. THE FOLLOWING SCIENCE OBJECTIVES WILL BE ADDRESSED SPECIFICALLY: I) TO CHARACTERIZE THE DEPENDENCIES AMONG THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY OF ERRORS IN OROGRAPHIC QPE AND ASSOCIATED HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL REGIMES II) TO CHARACTERIZE THE VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF RADAR REFLECTIVITY ASSOCIATED WITH QPE ERROR AND ESTABLISH A PHYSICS-BASED ERROR MODEL AND III) TO DEVELOP AN OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK TO INTEGRATE DPR OBSERVATIONS AND NWP MODEL SIMULATIONS TOWARD IMPROVING THE ACCURACY AND THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL RESOLUTION OF OROGRAPHIC QPE FOR HYDROLOGIC APPLICATIONS. THE RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS IS THAT A) SATELLITE QPE ERRORS (FALSE ALARMS MISSED DETECTION UNDERESTIMATION AND OVERESTIMATION) EXHIBIT A ROBUST SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL ORGANIZATION THAT IS EXPLAINED BY THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY IN THE VERTICAL MICROSTRUCTURE OF PRECIPITATION AND B) THESE ERRORS CAN BE ADDRESSED LOCALLY BY INTRODUCING PHYSICALLY-BASED CORRECTIONS DERIVED FROM HIGH-RESOLUTION NWP SIMULATIONS. THE STUDY WILL BE CONDUCTED USING OBSERVATIONS FROM THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS (SAM) REGION INCLUDING A HIGH-DENSITY RAIN GAUGE NETWORK MICRO RAIN RADARS (MRR) AND PARSIVEL DISDROMETERS SINCE THE LAUNCH OF GPM AS WELL AS IPHEX2014 DATA. THE RESEARCH PLAN CONSISTS OF FIVE MAJOR TASKS: 1) QUANTIFY AND UNDERSTAND THE PRECIPITATION UNCERTAINTY IN GPM-DPR PRODUCTS OVER MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS USING GROUND-BASED POINT MEASUREMENTS 2) CHARACTERIZE THE ARTIFACTS IN GPM-DPR RADAR REFLECTIVITY OBSERVATIONS IN THE LOWER TROPOSPHERE CONDITIONAL ON HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL REGIME AND QPE ERROR 3) CHARACTERIZE THE ERROR OF NWP MODEL SIMULATIONS (I.E. GDSU) OF GPMDPR REFLECTIVITY AGAINST GROUND-BASED RADAR REFLECTIVITY TO QUANTIFY REFLECTIVITY ERROR PROFILES CONDITIONAL ON MODEL SIMULATED VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF PRECIPITATION AND QPE ERROR 4) INTEGRATE THE RESULTS OF TASK 2 AND 3 TO DERIVE REFLECTIVITY CORRECTION PROFILES CONDITIONAL ON MODEL SIMULATED VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF PRECIPITATION AND 5) IMPLEMENT AND VALIDATE A FRAMEWORK TO CORRECT REAL-TIME GPR-DPR REFLECTIVITY IN THE LOWER TROPOSPHERE USING CORRECTION PROFILES IDENTIFIED FROM NWP FORECASTS WITHOUT INFORMATION FROM GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS. ($89) 10/28/20 4 QUANTITATIVE PRECIPITATION ESTIMATION (QPE) IN MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS REMAINS A CHALLENGING TASK OWING TO ITS HIGH SPATIOTEMPORAL VARIABILITY. SATELLITE-BASED RADAR OBSERVATIONS AT HIGH RESOLUTION HAVE THE BEST POTENTIAL TO CAPTURE THE SPATIAL PATTERNS OF PRECIPITATION BUT THERE IS HIGH UNCERTAINTY IN THE INTERPRETATION OF LOW-LEVEL MEASUREMENTS DUE TO GROUND CLUTTER EFFECTS, OBSERVING GEOMETRY, AND SUB-GRID SCALE VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL HETEROGENEITY OF PRECIPITATION SYSTEMS THAT RESULT FROM INTERACTIONS AMONG OROGRAPHIC CLOUDS AND PROPAGATING STORM SYSTEMS. IN THE HIGH ELEVATION TROPICS AND IN MIDDLE MOUNTAINS EVERYWHERE, THE LANDSCAPE IS OFTEN IMMERSED IN MULTI-LAYERED CLOUD SYSTEMS THAT MODIFY PRECIPITATION SIGNIFICANTLY AT LOW LEVELS IN A COMPLEX MANNER DEPENDING ON TIME OF DAY AND LOCATION THAT IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE CLASSICAL UNDERSTANDING OF OROGRAPHIC PRECIPITATION ENHANCEMENT WITH ELEVATION, AND ARE NOT EASILY PARAMETERIZED OR CORRECTED FOR IN QPE ALGORITHMS. THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO CHARACTERIZE AND ELUCIDATE THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF UNCERTAINTY IN GPM DPR QPE IN MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS AND DEVELOP AN OPERATIONAL ERROR CORRECTION FRAMEWORK FOR OROGRAPHIC PRECIPITATION. THE FOLLOWING SCIENCE OBJECTIVES WILL BE ADDRESSED SPECIFICALLY: I) TO CHARACTERIZE THE DEPENDENCIES AMONG THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY OF ERRORS IN OROGRAPHIC QPE AND ASSOCIATED HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL REGIMES II) TO CHARACTERIZE THE VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF RADAR REFLECTIVITY ASSOCIATED WITH QPE ERROR AND ESTABLISH A PHYSICS-BASED ERROR MODEL AND III) TO DEVELOP AN OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK TO INTEGRATE DPR OBSERVATIONS AND NWP MODEL SIMULATIONS TOWARD IMPROVING THE ACCURACY AND THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL RESOLUTION OF OROGRAPHIC QPE FOR HYDROLOGIC APPLICATIONS. THE RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS IS THAT A) SATELLITE QPE ERRORS (FALSE ALARMS, MISSED DETECTION, UNDERESTIMATION, AND OVERESTIMATION) EXHIBIT A ROBUST SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL ORGANIZATION THAT IS EXPLAINED BY THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY IN THE VERTICAL MICROSTRUCTURE OF PRECIPITATION AND B) THESE ERRORS CAN BE ADDRESSED LOCALLY BY INTRODUCING PHYSICALLY-BASED CORRECTIONS DERIVED FROM HIGH-RESOLUTION NWP SIMULATIONS. THE STUDY WILL BE CONDUCTED USING OBSERVATIONS FROM THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS (SAM) REGION INCLUDING A HIGH-DENSITY RAIN GAUGE NETWORK, MICRO RAIN RADARS (MRR), AND PARSIVEL DISDROMETERS SINCE THE LAUNCH OF GPM AS WELL AS IPHEX2014 DATA. THE RESEARCH PLAN CONSISTS OF FIVE MAJOR TASKS: 1) QUANTIFY AND UNDERSTAND THE PRECIPITATION UNCERTAINTY IN GPM-DPR PRODUCTS OVER MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS USING GROUND-BASED POINT MEASUREMENTS 2) CHARACTERIZE THE ARTIFACTS IN GPM-DPR RADAR REFLECTIVITY OBSERVATIONS IN THE LOWER TROPOSPHERE CONDITIONAL ON HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL REGIME AND QPE ERROR 3) CHARACTERIZE THE ERROR OF NWP MODEL SIMULATIONS (I.E. GDSU) OF GPMDPR REFLECTIVITY AGAINST GROUND-BASED RADAR REFLECTIVITY TO QUANTIFY REFLECTIVITY ERROR PROFILES CONDITIONAL ON MODEL SIMULATED VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF PRECIPITATION AND QPE ERROR 4) INTEGRATE THE RESULTS OF TASK 2 AND 3 TO DERIVE REFLECTIVITY CORRECTION PROFILES CONDITIONAL ON MODEL SIMULATED VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF PRECIPITATION AND 5) IMPLEMENT AND VALIDATE A FRAMEWORK TO CORRECT REAL-TIME GPR-DPR REFLECTIVITY IN THE LOWER TROPOSPHERE USING CORRECTION PROFILES IDENTIFIED FROM NWP FORECASTS WITHOUT INFORMATION FROM GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS. Funding Only Action ($89) 10/28/20 3 QUANTITATIVE PRECIPITATION ESTIMATION (QPE) IN MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS REMAINS A CHALLENGING TASK OWING TO ITS HIGH SPATIOTEMPORAL VARIABILITY. SATELLITE-BASED RADAR OBSERVATIONS AT HIGH RESOLUTION HAVE THE BEST POTENTIAL TO CAPTURE THE SPATIAL PATTERNS OF PRECIPITATION BUT THERE IS HIGH UNCERTAINTY IN THE INTERPRETATION OF LOW-LEVEL MEASUREMENTS DUE TO GROUND CLUTTER EFFECTS, OBSERVING GEOMETRY, AND SUB-GRID SCALE VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL HETEROGENEITY OF PRECIPITATION SYSTEMS THAT RESULT FROM INTERACTIONS AMONG OROGRAPHIC CLOUDS AND PROPAGATING STORM SYSTEMS. IN THE HIGH ELEVATION TROPICS AND IN MIDDLE MOUNTAINS EVERYWHERE, THE LANDSCAPE IS OFTEN IMMERSED IN MULTI-LAYERED CLOUD SYSTEMS THAT MODIFY PRECIPITATION SIGNIFICANTLY AT LOW LEVELS IN A COMPLEX MANNER DEPENDING ON TIME OF DAY AND LOCATION THAT IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE CLASSICAL UNDERSTANDING OF OROGRAPHIC PRECIPITATION ENHANCEMENT WITH ELEVATION, AND ARE NOT EASILY PARAMETERIZED OR CORRECTED FOR IN QPE ALGORITHMS. THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO CHARACTERIZE AND ELUCIDATE THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF UNCERTAINTY IN GPM DPR QPE IN MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS AND DEVELOP AN OPERATIONAL ERROR CORRECTION FRAMEWORK FOR OROGRAPHIC PRECIPITATION. THE FOLLOWING SCIENCE OBJECTIVES WILL BE ADDRESSED SPECIFICALLY: I) TO CHARACTERIZE THE DEPENDENCIES AMONG THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY OF ERRORS IN OROGRAPHIC QPE AND ASSOCIATED HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL REGIMES; II) TO CHARACTERIZE THE VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF RADAR REFLECTIVITY ASSOCIATED WITH QPE ERROR AND ESTABLISH A PHYSICS-BASED ERROR MODEL; AND III) TO DEVELOP AN OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK TO INTEGRATE DPR OBSERVATIONS AND NWP MODEL SIMULATIONS TOWARD IMPROVING THE ACCURACY AND THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL RESOLUTION OF OROGRAPHIC QPE FOR HYDROLOGIC APPLICATIONS. THE RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS IS THAT A) SATELLITE QPE ERRORS (FALSE ALARMS, MISSED DETECTION, UNDERESTIMATION, AND OVERESTIMATION) EXHIBIT A ROBUST SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL ORGANIZATION THAT IS EXPLAINED BY THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY IN THE VERTICAL MICROSTRUCTURE OF PRECIPITATION; AND B) THESE ERRORS CAN BE ADDRESSED LOCALLY BY INTRODUCING PHYSICALLY-BASED CORRECTIONS DERIVED FROM HIGH-RESOLUTION NWP SIMULATIONS. THE STUDY WILL BE CONDUCTED USING OBSERVATIONS FROM THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS (SAM) REGION INCLUDING A HIGH-DENSITY RAIN GAUGE NETWORK, MICRO RAIN RADARS (MRR), AND PARSIVEL DISDROMETERS SINCE THE LAUNCH OF GPM AS WELL AS IPHEX2014 DATA. THE RESEARCH PLAN CONSISTS OF FIVE MAJOR TASKS: 1) QUANTIFY AND UNDERSTAND THE PRECIPITATION UNCERTAINTY IN GPM-DPR PRODUCTS OVER MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS USING GROUND-BASED POINT MEASUREMENTS; 2) CHARACTERIZE THE ARTIFACTS IN GPM-DPR RADAR REFLECTIVITY OBSERVATIONS IN THE LOWER TROPOSPHERE CONDITIONAL ON HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL REGIME AND QPE ERROR; 3) CHARACTERIZE THE ERROR OF NWP MODEL SIMULATIONS (I.E. GDSU) OF GPMDPR REFLECTIVITY AGAINST GROUND-BASED RADAR REFLECTIVITY TO QUANTIFY REFLECTIVITY ERROR PROFILES CONDITIONAL ON MODEL SIMULATED VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF PRECIPITATION AND QPE ERROR; 4) INTEGRATE THE RESULTS OF TASK 2 AND 3 TO DERIVE REFLECTIVITY CORRECTION PROFILES CONDITIONAL ON MODEL SIMULATED VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF PRECIPITATION; AND 5) IMPLEMENT AND VALIDATE A FRAMEWORK TO CORRECT REAL-TIME GPR-DPR REFLECTIVITY IN THE LOWER TROPOSPHERE USING CORRECTION PROFILES IDENTIFIED FROM NWP FORECASTS WITHOUT INFORMATION FROM GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS. Funding Only Action $45.0k 8/7/18 Not listed QUANTITATIVE PRECIPITATION ESTIMATION (QPE) IN MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS REMAINS A CHALLENGING TASK OWING TO ITS HIGH SPATIOTEMPORAL VARIABILITY. SATELLITE-BASED RADAR OBSERVATIONS AT HIGH RESOLUTION HAVE THE BEST POTENTIAL TO CAPTURE THE SPATIAL PATTERNS OF PRECIPITATION BUT THERE IS HIGH UNCERTAINTY IN THE INTERPRETATION OF LOW-LEVEL MEASUREMENTS DUE TO GROUND CLUTTER EFFECTS OBSERVING GEOMETRY AND SUB-GRID SCALE VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL HETEROGENEITY OF PRECIPITATION SYSTEMS THAT RESULT FROM INTERACTIONS AMONG OROGRAPHIC CLOUDS AND PROPAGATING STORM SYSTEMS. IN THE HIGH ELEVATION TROPICS AND IN MIDDLE MOUNTAINS EVERYWHERE THE LANDSCAPE IS OFTEN IMMERSED IN MULTI-LAYERED CLOUD SYSTEMS THAT MODIFY PRECIPITATION SIGNIFICANTLY AT LOW LEVELS IN A COMPLEX MANNER DEPENDING ON TIME OF DAY AND LOCATION THAT IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE CLASSICAL UNDERSTANDING OF OROGRAPHIC PRECIPITATION ENHANCEMENT WITH ELEVATION AND ARE NOT EASILY PARAMETERIZED OR CORRECTED FOR IN QPE ALGORITHMS. THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO CHARACTERIZE AND ELUCIDATE THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF UNCERTAINTY IN GPM DPR QPE IN MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS AND DEVELOP AN OPERATIONAL ERROR CORRECTION FRAMEWORK FOR OROGRAPHIC PRECIPITATION. THE FOLLOWING SCIENCE OBJECTIVES WILL BE ADDRESSED SPECIFICALLY: I) TO CHARACTERIZE THE DEPENDENCIES AMONG THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY OF ERRORS IN OROGRAPHIC QPE AND ASSOCIATED HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL REGIMES; II) TO CHARACTERIZE THE VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF RADAR REFLECTIVITY ASSOCIATED WITH QPE ERROR AND ESTABLISH A PHYSICS-BASED ERROR MODEL; AND III) TO DEVELOP AN OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK TO INTEGRATE DPR OBSERVATIONS AND NWP MODEL SIMULATIONS TOWARD IMPROVING THE ACCURACY AND THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL RESOLUTION OF OROGRAPHIC QPE FOR HYDROLOGIC APPLICATIONS. THE RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS IS THAT A) SATELLITE QPE ERRORS (FALSE ALARMS MISSED DETECTION UNDERESTIMATION AND OVERESTIMATION) EXHIBIT A ROBUST SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL ORGANIZATION THAT IS EXPLAINED BY THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY IN THE VERTICAL MICROSTRUCTURE OF PRECIPITATION; AND B) THESE ERRORS CAN BE ADDRESSED LOCALLY BY INTRODUCING PHYSICALLY-BASED CORRECTIONS DERIVED FROM HIGH-RESOLUTION NWP SIMULATIONS. THE STUDY WILL BE CONDUCTED USING OBSERVATIONS FROM THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS (SAM) REGION INCLUDING A HIGH-DENSITY RAIN GAUGE NETWORK MICRO RAIN RADARS (MRR) AND PARSIVEL DISDROMETERS SINCE THE LAUNCH OF GPM AS WELL AS IPHEX2014 DATA. THE RESEARCH PLAN CONSISTS OF FIVE MAJOR TASKS: 1) QUANTIFY AND UNDERSTAND THE PRECIPITATION UNCERTAINTY IN GPM-DPR PRODUCTS OVER MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS USING GROUND-BASED POINT MEASUREMENTS; 2) CHARACTERIZE THE ARTIFACTS IN GPM-DPR RADAR REFLECTIVITY OBSERVATIONS IN THE LOWER TROPOSPHERE CONDITIONAL ON HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL REGIME AND QPE ERROR; 3) CHARACTERIZE THE ERROR OF NWP MODEL SIMULATIONS (I.E. GDSU) OF GPMDPR REFLECTIVITY AGAINST GROUND-BASED RADAR REFLECTIVITY TO QUANTIFY REFLECTIVITY ERROR PROFILES CONDITIONAL ON MODEL SIMULATED VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF PRECIPITATION AND QPE ERROR; 4) INTEGRATE THE RESULTS OF TASK 2 AND 3 TO DERIVE REFLECTIVITY CORRECTION PROFILES CONDITIONAL ON MODEL SIMULATED VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF PRECIPITATION; AND 5) IMPLEMENT AND VALIDATE A FRAMEWORK TO CORRECT REAL-TIME GPR-DPR REFLECTIVITY IN THE LOWER TROPOSPHERE USING CORRECTION PROFILES IDENTIFIED FROM NWP FORECASTS WITHOUT INFORMATION FROM GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS. $45.0k 8/7/18 Not listed QUANTITATIVE PRECIPITATION ESTIMATION (QPE) IN MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS REMAINS A CHALLENGING TASK OWING TO ITS HIGH SPATIOTEMPORAL VARIABILITY. SATELLITE-BASED RADAR OBSERVATIONS AT HIGH RESOLUTION HAVE THE BEST POTENTIAL TO CAPTURE THE SPATIAL PATTERNS OF PRECIPITATION BUT THERE IS HIGH UNCERTAINTY IN THE INTERPRETATION OF LOW-LEVEL MEASUREMENTS DUE TO GROUND CLUTTER EFFECTS OBSERVING GEOMETRY AND SUB-GRID SCALE VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL HETEROGENEITY OF PRECIPITATION SYSTEMS THAT RESULT FROM INTERACTIONS AMONG OROGRAPHIC CLOUDS AND PROPAGATING STORM SYSTEMS. IN THE HIGH ELEVATION TROPICS AND IN MIDDLE MOUNTAINS EVERYWHERE THE LANDSCAPE IS OFTEN IMMERSED IN MULTI-LAYERED CLOUD SYSTEMS THAT MODIFY PRECIPITATION SIGNIFICANTLY AT LOW LEVELS IN A COMPLEX MANNER DEPENDING ON TIME OF DAY AND LOCATION THAT IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE CLASSICAL UNDERSTANDING OF OROGRAPHIC PRECIPITATION ENHANCEMENT WITH ELEVATION AND ARE NOT EASILY PARAMETERIZED OR CORRECTED FOR IN QPE ALGORITHMS. THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO CHARACTERIZE AND ELUCIDATE THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF UNCERTAINTY IN GPM DPR QPE IN MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS AND DEVELOP AN OPERATIONAL ERROR CORRECTION FRAMEWORK FOR OROGRAPHIC PRECIPITATION. THE FOLLOWING SCIENCE OBJECTIVES WILL BE ADDRESSED SPECIFICALLY: I) TO CHARACTERIZE THE DEPENDENCIES AMONG THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY OF ERRORS IN OROGRAPHIC QPE AND ASSOCIATED HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL REGIMES; II) TO CHARACTERIZE THE VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF RADAR REFLECTIVITY ASSOCIATED WITH QPE ERROR AND ESTABLISH A PHYSICS-BASED ERROR MODEL; AND III) TO DEVELOP AN OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK TO INTEGRATE DPR OBSERVATIONS AND NWP MODEL SIMULATIONS TOWARD IMPROVING THE ACCURACY AND THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL RESOLUTION OF OROGRAPHIC QPE FOR HYDROLOGIC APPLICATIONS. THE RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS IS THAT A) SATELLITE QPE ERRORS (FALSE ALARMS MISSED DETECTION UNDERESTIMATION AND OVERESTIMATION) EXHIBIT A ROBUST SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL ORGANIZATION THAT IS EXPLAINED BY THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY IN THE VERTICAL MICROSTRUCTURE OF PRECIPITATION; AND B) THESE ERRORS CAN BE ADDRESSED LOCALLY BY INTRODUCING PHYSICALLY-BASED CORRECTIONS DERIVED FROM HIGH-RESOLUTION NWP SIMULATIONS. THE STUDY WILL BE CONDUCTED USING OBSERVATIONS FROM THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS (SAM) REGION INCLUDING A HIGH-DENSITY RAIN GAUGE NETWORK MICRO RAIN RADARS (MRR) AND PARSIVEL DISDROMETERS SINCE THE LAUNCH OF GPM AS WELL AS IPHEX2014 DATA. THE RESEARCH PLAN CONSISTS OF FIVE MAJOR TASKS: 1) QUANTIFY AND UNDERSTAND THE PRECIPITATION UNCERTAINTY IN GPM-DPR PRODUCTS OVER MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS USING GROUND-BASED POINT MEASUREMENTS; 2) CHARACTERIZE THE ARTIFACTS IN GPM-DPR RADAR REFLECTIVITY OBSERVATIONS IN THE LOWER TROPOSPHERE CONDITIONAL ON HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL REGIME AND QPE ERROR; 3) CHARACTERIZE THE ERROR OF NWP MODEL SIMULATIONS (I.E. GDSU) OF GPMDPR REFLECTIVITY AGAINST GROUND-BASED RADAR REFLECTIVITY TO QUANTIFY REFLECTIVITY ERROR PROFILES CONDITIONAL ON MODEL SIMULATED VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF PRECIPITATION AND QPE ERROR; 4) INTEGRATE THE RESULTS OF TASK 2 AND 3 TO DERIVE REFLECTIVITY CORRECTION PROFILES CONDITIONAL ON MODEL SIMULATED VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF PRECIPITATION; AND 5) IMPLEMENT AND VALIDATE A FRAMEWORK TO CORRECT REAL-TIME GPR-DPR REFLECTIVITY IN THE LOWER TROPOSPHERE USING CORRECTION PROFILES IDENTIFIED FROM NWP FORECASTS WITHOUT INFORMATION FROM GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS. $45.0k 6/6/17