The WMO-CIMO Lead Centre on Precipitation Intensity (LC-PrIn) dedicated to Benedetto Castelli is a Centre of Excellence for instrument development and testing with the purpose of:
- providing Members with specific guidance and standard procedures about instrument calibration and their achievable accuracy,
- performing laboratory and field tests and the intercomparison of instruments, and
- providing research advances and technical developments about the measurement of precipitation intensity and the related data analysis and interpretation.
The Lead Centre is a joint initiative of the Italian Air Force and the University of Genova (Italy), and operates on three different sites:
- Laboratory for instruments testing and calibration in controlled conditions, located at the University of Genova,
- Field site for rainfall intensity (RI) measurements, characterized by a Mediterranean climate with intense, prolonged rainy periods, located in Vigna di Valle (Rome) at the Technical Centre for Meteorology (CTM) of the Italian Air Force,
- Mountain site, envisaged for solid precipitation measurements, characterized by snowy periods and harsh climate conditions, located on the top of Mont Cimone mountain (2163 m amsl), in the hearth of the northern Apennines, operated by the Air Force Mountain Centre (CAMM).
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