event
Tuesday 01 Mar 2016: Quantitative Precipitation Estimation and Forecast (QPE/QPF): what are they and why are they important to flood research?
Dr. Yunqing Xuan - Zienkiewicz Computational Engineering Research Centre, Swansea University
Harrison 170 13:30-14:30
Accurate knowledge of precipitation distribution both temporarily and spatially as well as it prognostics is key to success of most flood forecasting and/or flood simulations at least for fluvial and pluvial floods. Sufficiently to say, the traditional raingauge network still remains as the major source of such knowledge; however, the development of remote sensing technology and high-resolution numerical weather prediction provides an important alternative. The QPE/QPF derived from these new technology together with the raingauge observation have been attracting more and more researchers in flood modeling, initially in river catchment modelling and many now in urban flood modeling. Interestingly, such appetite has now extended to climatic precipitation projection that is QPF in a broader sense.
In this talk, Dr. Xuan will give a review of QPE/QPF in the context of them being used in flood related research. The talk will cover: Weather Radar and rainfall measurement; high resolution NWP and coupled models; Rainfall fusion and nowcasting; challenges and the way forward. Some recent progresses in the area (e.g., X-band mobile radar, the UKV high res simulations) will be discussed together with a historical review. Finally, the importance of QPE/QPF in terms of contributing to urban flood research will be emphasized.
About the speaker: Dr. Xuan is a senior lecturer at Swansea University. He has been leading and/or involved in a number of QPE/QPF related research activities over last 12 years including EU FP5 FLOODRELIEF, EPSRC/NERC FRMRC I&II, InnovateUK KTP Welsh Extreme Storm Initiative. Currently he is looking after three weather radars on the brand new campus. One of his technical toys is a NWP model running on a 10-year-old Linux box under his office desk. He is a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society and responsible for the daily operation of the Welsh Local Centre of the RMetS based at Swansea. He can be contacted by the email above or via Twitter @HydroinfoEU or @RMetSWales
