Use of Weather Radar Data for Site Diversity Predictions and Impact of Rain Field Advection

This paper presents the analysis on two weather radar datasets, collected at Spino d´Adda (Italy) and Bordeaux (France), for the simulation and the performance evaluation of a site diversity system. Results from the two locations are compared and the impact of different factors such as baseline and link orientation is assessed and related to the local climatologic and topographic characteristics. A link is then established between the preferable baseline orientation and the predominant direction of the rain field advection. The rain field displacement is finally shown to be well approximated by the wind speed and direction at the 700 hPa pressure level extracted from the ECMWF ERA-40 meteorological database.