Multi-source estimation of rainfall using opportunistic sensors in urban areas in Burkina Faso

Using opportunistic sensors, such as commercial microwave links from mobile networks, to estimate precipitation is an innovative and promising approach to improving hydrometeorological monitoring in urban areas. As part of the TOPRAINCELL project in Burkina Faso, a real-time system for collecting transmitted and received power data was deployed in collaboration with the national operator Telecel Faso. This study is based on data acquired in 2022 in the country's two main cities, Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso. These cities have different climatic contexts, yet they both have limited conventional rainfall coverage. Cross-analyzing data from opportunistic sensors, ground-based rain gauges, and satellites reveals a strong correlation between microwave link estimates and reference measurements, with Pearson coefficients reaching 0.97 in Ouagadougou and 0.94 in Bobo-Dioulasso. Spatial precipitation maps have been produced to demonstrate the ability of this multi-source approach to reproduce the spatial variability of urban rainfall. These results confirm the potential of opportunistic sensors as a complementary and adaptable solution for rainfall monitoring in West Africa.