Rain gage catch variation due to airflow disturbances around a standard rain gage

Mueller, Charles C.; Kidder, E. H.

doi:10.1029/wr008i004p01077

Cited by 21 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Raindrops fall at an angle in windy conditions, so the effective orifice size of the rain gauge changes [ Rinehart , 1983; Hosking et al , 1985]. In addition to rainfall size distribution and gauge design, rainfall catch error depends on the ambient wind speed [e.g., Mueller and Kidder , 1972; Neff , 1977; Folland , 1988; Hanna , 1995; Nespor and Sevruk , 1999; Chang and Harrison , 2005] and is the single largest source of error in precipitation measurements [ Legates , 1987, 1992]. This problem of wind‐based undercatchment is especially apparent with tropical cyclones [ Miller , 1958a].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Contribution of tropical cyclones to extreme rainfall events in the southeastern United States

2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

[1] Extreme precipitation has been increasing in the United States over the past century. In light of the associated impacts and possible linkages to climate change, this topic has garnered a great deal of attention from the scientific community and general public. Because tropical cyclones are a common source of heavy rainfall in the southeastern United States, we examined the contribution of tropical cyclone precipitation relative to overall extreme precipitation from all weather systems combined. We used a surface observation network over the period 1972-2007, consisting of first-order and Cooperative Observer Program weather stations. Furthermore, to account for precipitation that may be unmeasured by rain gauges because of windy conditions during tropical cyclones, we employed a wind-corrected data set and the North American Regional Reanalysis. According to several metrics of extreme precipitation, we found that extreme precipitation from tropical cyclones has been increasing over the past few decades. Additionally, the contribution of tropical cyclone precipitation to overall extreme precipitation has been significantly increasing by approximately 5%-10% per decade in the southeastern Atlantic coastal states. We attribute this rise in tropical cyclone contribution to an increase in both the storm wetness (precipitation per storm) and storm frequency over the period of record. There is little evidence that changes in storm duration are responsible for the increase. As such, we believe that an important factor in accurately projecting changes in extreme precipitation rests on whether tropical cyclone activity is driven more by natural decadal oscillations or by large-scale warming of the environment.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of tropical cyclones to extreme rainfall events in the southeastern United States

2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The tipping-bucket rainfall accumulations are based on the manufacturer-provided calibration. No attempts have been made to correct for wind effects [e.g., see Mueller and Kidder, 1972;Neff, 1977;Folland, 1988;Hanna, 1995;Ne•por and Sevruk, 1999]. Data from the weighing rain gauges for the years 1996 and 1997 are not available yet and thus could not be incorporated into this study, because the process of quality control and converting the chart-recorded changes of rainfall intensity on pluviograph traces into breakpoint data has not been completed.…”

Section: Goodwin Creek Research Watershedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of bias adjustment and rain gauge data quality control on radar rainfall estimation

Steiner¹,

Smith²,

Burges³

et al. 1999

Water Resources Research

232

155

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Thirty major storms that passed over Goodwin Creek, a small research watershed in northern Mississippi, were analyzed to assess the bias between radar rainfall estimates at rain gauge locations and the gauge amounts. These storms, each contributing at least 10 mm of storm total rainfall, accumulated approximately 785 mm of rain, which corresponds to about half the average annual rainfall amount for the area. The focus of this study was to demonstrate the importance of (1) bias adjustment of the radar rainfall estimates and (2) the quality control of the rain gauge data used for bias adjustment. The analyses are based on Memphis Weather Surveillance Radar--1988 Doppler radar data, tipping-bucket rain gauge data, and raindrop spectra information collected within the Goodwin Creek catchment. Because of measurement and rainfall estimation uncertainties, radar observations are often combined with rain gauge data to obtain the most accurate rainfall estimates. Rain gauge data, however, are subject to characteristic error sources: for Goodwin Creek, malfunctioning of the tipping-bucket rain gauges was frequently caused by biological and mechanical fouling, and human interference. Therefore careful quality control of the rain gauge data is crucial, and only good quality rain gauge information should be used for adjusting radar rainfall estimates. By using high-quality gauge data and storm-based bias adjustment, we achieved radar rainfall estimates with root-mean-square errors (RMSE) of approximately 10% for storm total rainfall accumulations of 30 mm or more. Differences resulting from radar data processing scenarios were found to be small compared to the effect caused by bias adjustment and using high-quality rain gauge data.

show abstract

“…With the exception of insplash, all precipitation measurement errors are likely to arise from underestimation of the true value (Mueller and Kidder 1972). The larger catch received by the large gauge on most days may therefore indicate better design or exposure of this instrument.…”

Section: Data Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inferences regarding raingauge exposure at Durham, 1868–70

Joyce¹,

Cox

Kenworthy

1998

Weather

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rain gage catch variation due to airflow disturbances around a standard rain gage

Cited by 21 publications

References 4 publications

Contribution of tropical cyclones to extreme rainfall events in the southeastern United States

Contribution of tropical cyclones to extreme rainfall events in the southeastern United States

Effect of bias adjustment and rain gauge data quality control on radar rainfall estimation

Inferences regarding raingauge exposure at Durham, 1868–70

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About