QpeVerify

QpeVerify compares observed and radar-derived precipitation accumulation measurements.

Overview

QpeVerify reads precip accumulation measurements from SPDB and compares these with radar-derived QPE values stored in gridded files.

Prerequesites

The following items are required:

• Measured precipitation in XML format
• MDV or NetCDF radar files

Parameter file

QpeVerify uses one parameter file that includes the input directories and verification algorithm parameters.

Ensure file is up to date

To obtain the default parameter file, use the following command:

/path/to/lrose/install/bin/QpeVerify -print_params > param_file_name

If you already have a parameter file and simply want to check for (and add) updated parameters while retaining current parameters, use the following command:

/path/to/lrose/install/bin/QpeVerify -params orig_param_file_name -print_params > new_param_file_name

Important parameters

Program Modes of Operation

• mode: determines if the program waits for new files (REALTIME), moves through start and end times specified on the command line (ARCHIVE), or moves through list of files specified on the command line (FILELIST)

Measured Precip Accumulation at Points

• measured_precip_spdb_url: path to measured precipitation files
• accum_period_secs: accumulation period for both measured and QPE data (s)
• max_valid_accum_mm: maximum valid accumulation in measured data (mm)

Gridded QPE

• qpe_url: path of the input QPE data
• qpe_field_name: name of QPE accumulation field in gridded files
• max_valid_qpe_mm: maximum valid accumulation in QPE data (mm)

Running QpeVerify

To check all command line options for QpeVerify, including debugging options and file paths, type the following command into a terminal.

/path/to/lrose/install/bin/QpeVerify -h

Once your parameter file is complete, use a command similar to the following to run the application:

/path/to/lrose/install/bin/QpeVerify -params param_file_name

The user can also specify the location of cfradial files in the following manner:

/path/to/lrose/install/bin/QpeVerify -f /path/to/cfradial/files/ -params param_file_name