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The effect of natural rainfall variability in verification of rain modification experiments
Author(s) -
Huff F. A.
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/wr002i004p00791
Subject(s) - environmental science , storm , seeding , sampling (signal processing) , rain gauge , weather modification , meteorology , cloud seeding , climatology , atmospheric sciences , hydrology (agriculture) , geography , precipitation , geology , computer science , engineering , geotechnical engineering , filter (signal processing) , aerospace engineering , computer vision
Data from four concentrated rain gage networks in Illinois were used to investigate the effect of natural rainfall variability upon verification of cloud seeding experiments in midwestern, warm season rainfall on areas of county size or less. Hypothetical seeding experiments were made on network data for seasonal periods of 1 to 5 months and or durations of 1 to 10 years. Both target‐control and single‐area randomized experiments were investigated, and the data were grouped into air mass storms and all storms combined. Results indicated that the single‐area sampling experiments are influenced more by the effects of natural rainfall variability than the target control type, but that the background interference is substantial in both cases. The study clearly illustrates the pitfalls in judging the results of cloud seeding on short‐term experiments, and shows how verification may be affected by rain gage density and size of sampling area.