Luther professor's meteorological research on Upper Iowa River Watershed rainfall has been published

Luther College professor Richard Bernatz's study of 12 years of rainfall measurements for the Upper Iowa River watershed upstream from Decorah has been published in the Journal of Iowa Academic Sciences.

The study found that Multi-sensor Precipitation Estimation readings, which are algorithmically derived from radar and satellite observations, over-estimate accumulations for high-intensity events and under-estimate accumulations for low-intensity events. MPE data was provided by the Iowa Flood Center on the University of Iowa campus.

Accurate rainfall measurement is important for establishing climate trends and providing input for hydrologic models used to predict flooding due to excessive rainfall runoff. Recording rain gauges provides accurate ground-based observations of rainfall accumulation and intensity on a point-wise basis, but there are often not enough rainfall gauges. MPE modeling provides a comprehensive rainfall "surface" instead of relying on point-wise gauge data that must be interpolated to provide similar watershed coverage.