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Rainfall uncertainty for extreme events in NWP downscaling model
Author(s) -
Bray Michaela,
Han Dawei,
Xuan Yunqing,
Bates Paul,
Williams Michael
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
hydrological processes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.222
H-Index - 161
eISSN - 1099-1085
pISSN - 0885-6087
DOI - 10.1002/hyp.7905
Subject(s) - mm5 , downscaling , precipitation , meteorology , environmental science , climatology , hydrological modelling , numerical weather prediction , geology , geography
Limited area numerical weather predication (NWP) models such as MM5 have become a popular method for generating rainfall estimates for hydrological analysis, particularly for catchments where rainfall data are sparse. Although several studies have been undertaken to investigate the appropriateness of MM5 parameterization schemes for hydrological applications, the size of the nested domains and the distance between them have been overlooked as a source of uncertainty in model precipitation estimates for hydrological purposes. This study examines the uncertainty of model rainfall estimates derived from MM5 by varying the domain size and the distance between the domains. The results from this study show that domain size and buffer zone have a significant impact on model rainfall estimates, which should not be overlooked by hydrologists. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.