Doumounia A., Gosset Marielle, Cazenave Frédéric, Kacou M., Zougmore F. (2014). Rainfall monitoring based on microwave links from cellular telecommunication networks : first results from a West African test bed. Geophysical Research Letters, 41 (16), p. 6016-6022. ISSN 0094-8276.
Titre du document
Rainfall monitoring based on microwave links from cellular telecommunication networks : first results from a West African test bed
Doumounia A., Gosset Marielle, Cazenave Frédéric, Kacou M., Zougmore F.
Source
Geophysical Research Letters, 2014,
41 (16), p. 6016-6022 ISSN 0094-8276
Rainfall monitoring based on commercial terrestrial microwave links is tested for the first time in Burkina Faso, in Sahelian West Africa. In collaboration with one national cellular phone operator, Telecel Faso, the attenuation on a 29km long microwave link operating at 7GHz was monitored at 1s time rate for the monsoon season 2012. The time series of attenuation is transformed into rain rates and compared with rain gauge data. The method is successful in quantifying rainfall: 95% of the rainy days are detected. The correlation with the daily rain gauge series is 0.8, and the season bias is 6%. The correlation at the 5min time step within each event is also high. These results demonstrate the potential interest of exploiting national and regional wireless telecommunication networks for monitoring rainfall in Africa, where operational rain gauge networks are degrading and the hydrometeorological risk increasing.
