Testing and development of transfer functions for weighing precipitation gauges in WMO-SPICE

Autor: Mareile Wolff, Roy Rasmussen, Michael E. Earle, Eva Mekis, Yves-Alain Roulet, Ragnar Brækkan, Bruce Baker, Daqing Yang, Craig D. Smith, Kai Wong, Rodica Nitu, Scott Landolt, John Kochendorfer, Tilden P. Meyers, Ketil Isaksen, Samuel Buisán, Audrey Reverdin, Albert Jachcik
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: ARCIMIS. Archivo Climatológico y Meteorológico Institucional (AEMET)
Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (AEMET)
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vol 22, Pp 1437-1452 (2018)
ISSN: 1607-7938
DOI: 10.5194/hess-22-1437-2018
Popis: Adjustments for the undercatch of solid precipitation caused by wind were developed for different weighing gauge/wind shield combinations tested in WMO-SPICE. These include several different manufacturer-provided unshielded and single-Alter shielded weighing gauges, a MRW500 precipitation gauge within a small, manufacturer-provided shield, and host-provided precipitation gauges within double-Alter, Belfort double-Alter, and small Double-Fence Intercomparison Reference (SDFIR) shields. Previously-derived adjustments were also tested on measurements from each weighing gauge/wind shield combination. The transfer functions developed specifically for each of the different types of unshielded and single-Alter shielded weighing gauges did not perform significantly better than the more generic and universal transfer functions developed previously using measurements from eight different WMO-SPICE sites. This indicates that wind shield type (or lack thereof) is more important in determining the magnitude of wind-induced undercatch than the type of weighing precipitation gauge. It also demonstrates the potential for widespread use of the previously-developed, multi-site single-Alter shielded and unshielded transfer functions. In addition, corrections for the lower-porosity Belfort double-Alter shield and a standard double-Alter shield were developed and tested using measurements from two separate sites for the first time. Among all of the manufacturer-provided shields tested, with an average undercatch of about 5 %, the Belfort double Alter shield required the least amount of correction, and caught ~ 80 % of the reference amount of precipitation even in snowy conditions with wind speeds greater than 5 m s−1. The SDFIR-shielded gauge accumulated 98 % of the Double-Fence Automated Reference (DFAR) precipitation amount on average, accumulated 90 % of the DFAR accumulation in high winds, and was almost indistinguishable from the full-sized DFAR used as a reference. In general, the more effective wind shields, that were associated with smaller unadjusted errors, also produced more accurate measurements after adjustment.
Databáze: OpenAIRE