How to ingest DWD PZ product

Python
1

Thanks for this. I will have a look into it.

I just found out that the ‘pz’ product from DWD are the CAPPIs. Do you know about any package/ tutorial that can read/ load this?

2

@atmoboran wradlib claims to be able to read all sorts of RADOLAN data. Currently it can’t but we can implement a reader for PZ. Is there some documentation for PZ? I’ve checked it already, the current wradlib reader has problems to parse the file header. So we would need to figure it out.

3

DWD provides only this ( Standortprodukt PZ Barrierefrei (dwd.de)) very unsatisfactory documentation.
In this paper ( Microsoft Word - promotion_online.doc (fu-berlin.de)) you can find some information about it:

  • 3D radar reflectivity
  • 12 vertically staggered horizontal layers
  • 200 x 200 polar-stereographic Pixel → 2 km x 2 km
  • vertikale resolution 1km
  • top layer 12 km above ground

I guess thunderstorms are not severe enough yet for Germany to have a 3D inspection. Or at least one comes across very rarely. I only know of Aufwind/Mesozyklonen-Index | 3D-Radaranalyse, Deutschland | Wetter von kachelmann. (kachelmannwetter.com), where one can see it.
Or why do you think 3D radar is not so common in Germany?

4

Thanks @atmoboran,

From inspecting the raw data the file is run line encoded. It should be possible to get this working with wradlib, as wradlib has the bits and pieces for run-length encoding available. But, I’ll nevertheless try to get some more information from DWD.

Best,
Kai

P.S. I’ve splitted the topic as it is different from the original.

5

@atmoboran You might have a look at ENH: add PZ-product (DWD station product) to RADOLAN reader by kmuehlbauer · Pull Request #656 · wradlib/wradlib · GitHub and test the reading capabilities for PZ.