Federation University researchers have developed a tool that reveals spatial variations in rainfall over short distances, providing farmers with an unprecedented level of detail about rainfall on their properties.
Rainfall Mapper enables users to select tiles that are 500 by 500 metres for specific locations and time periods – allowing the tool to be used by farmers to gain insight into rainfall information specific to their property. With increased access to information about past rainfall, the tool enables farmers to make informed decisions.
Available to the public on a trial basis, Rainfall Mapper is a standalone, online application developed by the technical team from the Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) based on the initial work done by Dr Peter Weir during his Soil CRC PhD project.
The trial results will help improve the design of the tool to enhance the user experience, enabling the research team to gain a deeper understanding of the varied, practical applications of the tool.
This will guide the research direction of optimising the practical value of Rainfall Mapper for different users.
The project was developed from Dr Weir's PhD research, which involved determining soil moisture content at the paddock level and investigating the spatial variation in rainfall within an area.
"It is an area measurement – not a point measurement from a single location and that means the app has the capability of picking up rainfall details of localised thunderstorms that often occur unmeasured between official Bureau of Meteorology gauges," Dr Weir said.
Regional rain gauges are sparsely located with an average distance of around 30-50 kilometres between these single-point measurements.
"We're very careful with our disclaimer because the rainfall amounts are dependent on the modelling of the weather radar signal to estimate the amount of rain that has fallen in that specific area, but the results are extremely interesting."
Rainfall Mapper uses data sourced from the official Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) rain gauge network from across Australia, merged with the BoM's weather radars to generate the Rainfields3 dataset, which is available online from the National Computing Infrastructure – that supports research and collaboration across science, government, and industry.
The tool relies on modelled data that converts reflectivity picked up by weather radar – often detected up to a kilometre off the ground – and converting that to rainfall.