Seasonal and regional variability in scaling properties and correlation structure of high resolution precipitation data in a highly heterogeneous mountain environment (Switzerland)
Date
2006
Authors
Molnar, Peter, author
Burlando, Paolo, author
Colorado State University, publisher
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
A large dataset of high resolution 10-min precipitation data from 62 stations across Switzerland with an average of 21 years of observations are studied to explore the generality in the scaling relationships and correlation structure of precipitation. The focus is on the seasonal and regional variability in scaling and correlation parameters and their interdependency. It is shown that seasonal effects are generally stronger than regional ones. The summer season shows more structure in precipitation, a shorter autocorrelation range due to convective activity, high growth of intermittency and variability, and a resulting multiscaling behaviour in moments. Winter events are longer, with smoother, less variable, and strongly autocorrelated high resolution precipitation, and with a simple scaling behaviour caused by larger scale frontal events. Some coherent regional differences are also apparent. The high Alpine region shows less variability and a stronger autocorrelation than other regions, and a tendency towards simple scaling. It appears that orographic effects in the Alps lead to better behaved and more predictable precipitation fields. This paper shows that high resolution precipitation scaling and correlation parameters are considerably variable and interdependent. This has an important practical significance for the extrapolation of parameters of scaling-based models to ungauged sites.
Description
2006 annual AGU hydrology days was held at Colorado State University on March 20 - March 22, 2006.
Includes bibliographical references.
Includes bibliographical references.