This repository contains the results presented in the manuscript "Cell tracking -based framework for assessing nowcasting model skill in reproducing growth and decay of convective rainfall" by Ritvanen, J., Pulkkinen, S., Moisseev, D., and Nerini, D. submitted to the Geoscientific Model Development journal.

A description of the data files is provided below.

tracking_data.zip

This zip folder contains the cell tracking data from the study.

NOTE: the unpacked size of the files is approximately 26GB.

The data is stored in a netCDF file OBJECTS_ALL.nc with the following coordinates:

• method: the nowcasting model name
• leadtime: index of the leadtime of the nowcast starting from 1 (e.g. 1=5min, 2=10min, 3=15min, ...)
• prev_time: index of the input time step of the nowcast starting from -5 (-5=-25min, -4=-20min, -3=-15min, -2=-10min, -1=-5min, 0=nowcast creation time)
• sample: the nowcast creation time
• cell: cell index
• track: cell track index

The following variables are stored:

• cell_match_obs_max_rr: the maximum observed rain rates of the observed-nowcast cell pairs matched with Hungarian algorithm, mm/h
• cell_match_pred_max_rr: the maximum nowcast rain rates of the observed-nowcast cell pairs matched with Hungarian algorithm, mm/h
• cell_match_obs_mean_rr : the mean observed rain rates of the observed-nowcast cell pairs matched with Hungarian algorithm, mm/h
• cell_match_pred_mean_rr: the mean nowcast rain rates of the observed-nowcast cell pairs matched with Hungarian algorithm, mm/h
• cell_match_obs_area: the areas of the observed cell of the observed-nowcast cell pairs matched with Hungarian algorithm, km^2
• cell_match_pred_area: the areas of the nowcast cell of the observed-nowcast cell pairs matched with Hungarian algorithm, km^2
• unmatched_obs_sum_rr: the volume rain rates of observed cells that were unmatched with Hungarian algorithm, 1e9 m^3/h
• unmatched_pred_sum_rr: the volume rain rates of nowcast cells that were unmatched with Hungarian algorithm, 1e9 m^3/h
• unmatched_obs_max_rr: the maximum rain rates of observed cells that were unmatched with Hungarian algorithm, mm/h
• unmatched_pred_max_rr: the maximum rain rates of nowcast cells that were unmatched with Hungarian algorithm, mm/h
• unmatched_obs_mean_rr: the mean rain rates of observed cells that were unmatched with Hungarian algorithm, mm/h
• unmatched_pred_mean_rr: the mean rain rates of nowcast cells that were unmatched with Hungarian algorithm, mm/h
• unmatched_obs_area: the areas of observed cells that were unmatched with Hungarian algorithm, km^2
• unmatched_pred_area: the areas of nowcast cells that were unmatched with Hungarian algorithm, km^2
• obs_lifetime: number of time steps the cell track exists in target observations
• obs_area: the area of cells in target observations, km^2
• obs_max_rr: the maximum rain rate of cells in target observations, mm/h
• obs_mean_rr: the mean rain rate of cells in target observations, mm/h
• obs_sum_rr: the volume rain rate of cells in target observations, 1e9 m^3/h
• prev_area: the area of cells in the input observations, km^2
• prev_max_rr: the maximum rain rate of cells in the input observations, mm/h
• prev_mean_rr: the mean rain rate of cells in the input observations, mm/h
• prev_sum_rr: the volume rain rate of cells in the input observations, 1e9 m^3/h
• pred_lifetime: number of time steps the cell track exists in nowcast
• pred_area: the area of cells in the nowcast, km^2
• pred_max_rr: the maximum rain rate of cells in the nowcast, mm/h
• pred_mean_rr: the mean rain rate of cells in the nowcast, mm/h
• pred_sum_rr: the volume rain rate of cells in the nowcast, 1e9 m^3/h
• pred_dist: the distance between the observed and nowcast cell centroids, km
• prev_merged: whether the cell in input observations is a product of merging, bool
• prev_from_split: whether the cell in input observations is a product of splitting, bool
• prev_will_merge: whether the cell in input observations will merge in the next time step, bool
• obs_merged: whether the cell in target observations is a product of merging, bool
• obs_from_split: whether the cell in target observations is a product of splitting, bool
• obs_will_merge: whether the cell in target observations will merge in the next time step, bool
• pred_merged: whether the cell in nowcast is a product of merging, bool
• pred_from_split: whether the cell in nowcast is a product of splitting, bool
• pred_will_merge: whether the cell in nowcast will merge in the next time step, bool

Additionally, configuration file used to generate the tracking data is provided in the objects-2021-2023-20240308-less-splits_config.yaml file, and a csv file done_objects-2021-2023-20240308-less-splits.csv listing the processed timesteps is provided.

results.zip

This zip folder contains the numerical versions of the result figures.

The following files are provided:

• histograms_article_lifetime_full.csv: numerical histograms of cell track lifetimes (Figure 4)
• histograms_article_max_area.csv: numerical histograms of cell track maximum areas (Figure 4)
• histograms_article_prev_area.csv: numerical histograms of cell area at t_0 (Figure 4)
• histograms_article_prev_sum_rr.csv: numerical histograms of cell volume rain rates at t_0 (Figure 4)
• cell_existence_counts.csv: number of cells (Figure 5)
• cell_existence_growth_decay.csv: cell track existence metrics (Figure 6)
• growth_decay_track_classification_ab_counts.csv: number of hits, misses, and false alarms in the cell track classification (Figure 7a-b)
• growth_decay_track_classification_c_scores.csv: cell track classification metrics (Figure 7c)
• sum_rr_diff_article.csv: volume rain rate differences between observed and nowcast cells (Figure 8)
• area_diff_article.csv: area differences between observed and nowcast cells (Figure 9)
• mean_rr_diff_article.csv: mean rain rate differences between observed and nowcast cells (Figure 10)
• cell_match_metrics_a_counts.csv: number of cells in the cell occurrence analysis (Figure 11a)
• cell_match_metrics_bcde_metrics.csv: cell occurrence analysis metrics (Figure 11b-e)
• split_merge_counts.csv: the number of splits and merges in the cell tracks (Figure 12)

results_supplementary.zip

This zip folder contains the numerical versions of the supplementary result figures.

The following files are provided:

• histograms_article_lifetime_full.csv: numerical histograms of cell track lifetimes (Figure S1)
• histograms_article_max_area.csv: numerical histograms of cell track maximum areas (Figure S1)
• histograms_article_prev_area.csv: numerical histograms of cell area at t_0 (Figure S1)
• histograms_article_prev_sum_rr.csv: numerical histograms of cell volume rain rates at t_0 (Figure S1)
• cell_existence_counts.csv: number of cells (Figure S2)
• cell_existence_growth_decay.csv: cell track existence metrics (Figure S3)
• growth_decay_track_classification_ab_counts.csv: number of hits, misses, and false alarms in the cell track classification (Figure S4a-b)
• growth_decay_track_classification_c_scores.csv: cell track classification metrics (Figure S4c)
• sum_rr_diff_article.csv: volume rain rate differences between observed and nowcast cells (Figure S5)
• area_diff_article.csv: area differences between observed and nowcast cells (Figure S6)
• mean_rr_diff_article.csv: mean rain rate differences between observed and nowcast cells (Figure S7)