The Operational Program on the Exchange of Weather Radar Information (OPERA) has co-ordinated radar co-operation among national weather services in Europe for more than 20 years. It has introduced its own, manufacturer-independent data model, runs its own data center, and produces Pan-European radar composites. The applications using this data vary from data assimilation to flood warnings and the monitoring of animal migration. It has used several approaches to provide a homogeneous combination of disparate raw data and to indicate the reliability of its products. In particular, if a pixel shows no precipitation, it is important to know if that pixel is dry or if the measurement was missing.
E Saltikoff, G Haase, L Delobbe, N Gaussiat, M Martet, D Idziorek, H Leijnse, P Novák, M Lukach, K Stephan. OPERA the radar project
Status: published, Journal: Atmosphere, Volume: 10, Year: 2019, First page: 320, doi: 10.3390/atmos10060320