
Comments on “Does Air Pollution Really Suppress Precipitation in Israel?”
Author(s) -
Amir Givati,
Daniel Rosenfeld
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of applied meteorology and climatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.079
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1558-8432
pISSN - 1558-8424
DOI - 10.1175/2009jamc1902.1
Subject(s) - precipitation , environmental science , orographic lift , rain gauge , climatology , meteorology , quantitative precipitation estimation , selection (genetic algorithm) , orography , atmospheric sciences , geography , computer science , geology , artificial intelligence
Alpert et al. in a recent paper challenged the quantification of the suppression of orographic precipitation that was shown in two recent papers by Givati and Rosenfeld to occur in Israel. Their main claim was that the results were determined by the selection of the rain gauges. In this comment, it is demonstrated that when an objective selection of the rain gauges is applied to all of the rain gauges that were used by Alpert et al. and Givati and Rosenfeld, the outcome replicates the results of Givati and Rosenfeld and provides additional insights. At the final account, this comment further enhances the confidence that orographic precipitation has been suppressed over Israel. The direct evidence to the cause is still lacking.