During July 2006, sixteen tipping bucket rain gauges were installed within the area covered by one GOES satellite pixel (4 km x 4 km), with the objective of comparing the gauge data with rainfall estimates from the NOAA NESDIS Hydro-Estimator algorithm and the UPRM CASA Radar network. Each rain gauge is equipped with a data logger capable of storing rainfall depth every 10 minutes over a 48-day period. In 2007, 12 additional rain gauges were added to the network. The 12 gauges are located within a small subwatershed with a stream gauge installed at the outlet. The study area is located near the University of Puerto Rico’s Mayagüez Campus (UPRM) in western Puerto Rico (click on figures below to see enlarged images). For the rain gauge spatial coordinates (Latitude and Longatude) click here. Financial support for installation and maintenance of the rain gauge network is provided by the UPRM NOAA CREST and CASA Radar projects

More information about the rain gauge network is available from the following paper:

Harmsen, E. W., S. E. Gomez Mesa, E. Cabassa, N. D. Ramirez Beltran, S. C. Pol, R. J. Kuligowski ,R. Vasquez, 2008. Satellite Sub-Pixel Rainfall Variability. WSEAS Transactions on Signal Processing. Issue 8, Volume 7, Pages 504-513.

Download Rain Gauge Data

Note that the rain gauge data is “raw” data, that is to say, data from malfunctioning gauges have not been removed. An example of a malfunctioning gauge is one that became plugged and therefore did not measure any rainfall during a rainfall event. It is recommended that the rain gauges be screened for anomalous values for each storm, and that gauges identified as having anomalous data be eliminated. In the example, this rain gauge could have been identified by comparing it with surrounding rain gauges.

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