Risk of hail - Jabbeke weather radar

Hail products are derived from the observed vertical profiles of radar reflectivity and the NWP vertical profiles of temperature. Three types of products are generated. poh : probability of hail of any size (larger than 0.5 cm diameter)expressed in %. posh : probability of severe hail(larger than 2cm)expressed in %. mesh : maximum expected size of hailexpressed in mm of hailstone diameter. All products are generated every 5 minutes. This product is not publically available yet.

UV Index

UV Index derived from spectral measurements with a Brewer UV spectrophotometer. This product is not publically available yet.

Commune hourly forecasts

Hourly forecasts for each belgian commune, from current hour up to the next 5 days. This product is not publically available.

ROB Earthquake Catalogue and Database

The earthquake catalogue and database of the Royal Observatory of Belgium contains source parameters of earthquakes that occurred in and around Belgium since 1350. Similar to most other seismic catalogues in the world, the ROB catalogue is heterogeneous, as it is based on the analysis of two different types of data: - Historical data: concern the period from about 1350 to 1910, for which only local reports about damage and felt effects (i.e. intensity) of earthquakes are available (“macroseismic” observations); - Instrumental data: concern the period from 1911 onward, the year continuous seismic recordings in Belgium started, up to the present day. For earthquakes during this period both intensity data (from macroseismic enquiries with the local authorities and, since 2000, on the internet) and seismic recordings are available. The earthquake catalogue is a list of earthquakes with the following parameters: origin time (year, month, day, hour, minute, second), geographic coordinates of the hypocenter (latitude, longitude, focal depth), magnitude (local magnitude ML, surface-wave magnitude Ms and/or moment magnitude Mw), maximum observed intensity, and the name of the locality. The ROB catalogue is considered to be complete: - Since 1350 for earthquakes with Mw>=5.0; - Since 1905 for earthquakes with Mw>=4.0 (seismic station in Uccle and neighboring countries); - Since 1960 for earthquakes with Mw>=3.0 (4 stations in Belgium); - Since 1985 for earthquakes with Mw>=2.0 (modern digital network consisting of 20+ stations).

RADCLIM

RADCLIM is a historical dataset based on weather radar observations that provides gridded accumulated precipitation composites over Belgium and surrounding regions. The data are distributed in ODIM_H5 version 2.2 format. The reported quantity is accumulated precipitation (ACRR) for 5-minute and 1-hour accumulation periods. UTC is used as the time reference, and the timestamp in the filename corresponds to the end of the accumulation period. The dataset is produced on a 700 × 700 grid with 1 km spatial resolution in the Belgian Lambert 2008 projection (Lambert Conformal Conic).

Daily commune forecasts

Daily forecasts for each Belgian commune, from current day up to the next 14 days. Available parameters are : min temperature, max temperature, weather type, wind speed, wind direction, maximum hust speed, quantity of precipitation. This product is not publicly available.

Synoptic observations

The SYNOP data of RMI contain the observations of the synoptic network, currently consisting of 29 stations, 13 of which are owned by RMI. The other stations belong to MeteoWing (8 stations), Skeyes (7 stations). There is also 1 foreign station. All SYNOP data is given in Universal Time! (local time winter = UT +1; local time summer = UT + 2) Parameters: 1. Precipitation: PRECIP_QUANTITY + PRECIP_RANGE 2. Temperature: TEMP + TEMP_MIN + TEMP_MAX + TEMP_GRASS_MIN 3. Wind: WIND_SPEED + WIND_SPEED_UNIT + WIND_DIRECTION + WIND_PEAK_SPEED 4. relative humidity: HUMIDITY_RELATIVE 5. weather type: WEATHER_CURRENT 6. air pressure: PRESSURE of PRESSURE_STATION_LEVEL 7. sunshine duration: SUN_DURATION_24H 8. Global radiation: SHORT_WAVE_FROM_SKY_24HOUR 9. Total cloudiness: CLOUDINESS

Belgian rainfall composite

The composite is produced every 5 minutes using the reflectivity data from the Wideumont and Jabbeke weather radars. This product is not publicly available yet.

Belgian risk of hail composite

Hail products are derived from the observed vertical profiles of radar reflectivity and the NWP vertical profiles of temperature. Three types of products are generated. poh : probability of hail of any size (larger than 0.5 cm diameter)expressed in %. posh : probability of severe hail(larger than 2cm)expressed in %. mesh : maximum expected size of hailexpressed in mm of hailstone diameter. All products are generated every 5 minutes. This product is not publically available yet.

Bird density profiles derived from weather radar measurements

Bird density profiles are derived from weather radar volume data in real time, by the vol2bird algorithm as described in Dokter et al. (2011, 2019). The vol2bird algorithm exploits the radar reflectivity characteristics of different scatterers in the atmosphere, in order to distinguish biological from non-biological radar echoes. Once biological scatterers are isolated in the volume files, the reflectivity of these scatterers is converted in an estimate of the bird density per vertical layer of 200m, using a mean cross section of 11 cm2. The vbird profiles are provided for the following radars, with the radar owner in parentheses: Jabbeke (RMI), Wideumont (RMI), Helchteren (VMM), Zaventem (Skeyes), Herwijnen (KNMI), Den Helder (KNMI), Neuheilenbach (DWD), Essen (DWD), Abbeville (Météo-France) and Avesnois (Météo-France). References: - Dokter A.M., Liechti F., Stark H., Delobbe L., Tabary P., Holleman I., Bird migration flight altitudes studied by a network of operational weather radars, J. R. Soc. Interface, 8, 30–43, 2011, DOI 10.1098/rsif.2010.0116 - Dokter A.M., Desmet P., Spaaks J.H., van Hoey S., Veen L., Verlinden L., Nilsson C., Haase G., Leijnse H., Farnsworth A., Bouten W., Shamoun-Baranes J., bioRad: biological analysis and visualization of weather radar data, Ecography, 42, 852-860, 2019, DOI 10.1111/ecog.04028

continual