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Strong Dependence of Extreme Convective Precipitation Intensities on Gauge Network Density
Author(s) -
Schroeer Katharina,
Kirchengast Gottfried,
O Sungmin
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2018gl077994
Subject(s) - precipitation , environmental science , convection , rain gauge , climatology , meteorology , atmospheric sciences , scale (ratio) , physics , geology , quantum mechanics
Extreme convective precipitation on subhourly scales is notoriously misrepresented in rain gauge‐based observations, but uncertainties are weakly quantified at the 1 to 30 km scale. We employ a unique observing network, the high‐density WegenerNet and surrounding operational rain gauge network in southeastern Austria, to sample convective precipitation extremes at these scales. By systematically constructing lower‐density networks, we explore how estimated maximum area precipitation depends on observing station density. Using subhourly to hourly temporal resolution, we find a d −0.5(±0.1) power law decay of the event maximum area precipitation over distances d from 1 to 30 km, showing that operational gauge networks underrate extreme convective precipitation falling over small areas. Furthermore, extremes at point scale are found underestimated by operational networks by about 20%. We consider the dependencies representative for short‐duration convective events over similar regions at midlatitudes and the results valuable for high‐resolution climate model evaluation.