Natural Hazards and Earth System Science www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net 1561-8633 1684-9981 10 3 2010 10.5194/nhess-10-429-2010 http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/10/429/2010/ http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/10/429/2010/nhess-10-429-2010.html http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/10/429/2010/nhess-10-429-2010.pdf 429 446 2010-03-11 An approach to combine radar and gauge based rainfall data under consideration of their qualities in low mountain ranges of Saxony N. Jatho nadine.jatho@tu-dresden.de T. Pluntke C. Kurbjuhn C. Bernhofer Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology, Department of Meteorology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany An approach to combine gauge and radar data and additional quality information is presented. The development was focused on the improvement of the diagnostic for temporal (one hour) and spatial (1&times;1 km²) highly resolved precipitation data. The method is embedded in an online tool and was applied to the target area Saxony, Germany. The aim of the tool is to provide accurate spatial rainfall estimates. The results can be used for rainfall run-off modelling, e.g. in a flood management system. <br><br> Quality information allows a better assessment of the input data and the resulting precipitation field. They are stored in corresponding fields and represent the static and dynamic uncertainties of radar and gauge data. Objective combination of various precipitation and quality fields is realised using a cost function. <br><br> The findings of cross validation reveal that the proposed combination method merged the benefits and disadvantages of interpolated gauge and radar data and leads to mean estimates. 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