Diurnal cycle of precipitation in the Southeast U.S. using high spatial and temporal resolution quantitative precpitation estimates and radar-reflectivity products derived from National Mosaic and Multi-sensor QPE (NMQ/Q2)

Radar based quantitative precipitation estimates (QPE) provide an opportunity to study the diurnal cycle of precipitation at much finer scales than do models or satellite QPE. It has been shown where models "miss" certain precipitation events and satellites suffer from geo-location errors as well as temporal resolution issues. Using a long term product developed over the Southeastern U.S. which loosely co-locates to the Hydrometeorology Testbed (southeast) (HMT-southeast) we investigate the diurnal cycle of precipitation using high resolution (1km2 and 5-minute) QPE and their associated reflectivity data. We present the average intensity, peak intensity, and inter-annual variability of the diurnal cycle of precipitation. In addition we investigate the impact of resolution on each of these variables. The radar based QPE that will be used in this investigation have been developed by the National Mosaic and Multi-sensor QPE(NMQ/Q2) algorithm from the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) which has been implemented at the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) to produce a long-term radar based QPE in a reanalysis mode. The period of record spans from 1998-present. This 13 year data set provides a lot of data for the investigation into the diurnal cycle of precipitation. The NMQ reanalysis product has several variables available; QPE, 2-d reflectivity, and 3-d reflectivity, each of which will be valuable in the study of the diurnal cycle of precipitation. Comparisons of the diurnal cycle will be made with lower resolution data such as the NWS operational Stage IV multi-sensor precipitation estimate.