Which theoretical distribution function best fits measured within day rainfall distributions across Australia?

Abstract

Rainfall data at high temporal resolutions is required to accurately model the dynamics of surface runoff processes, in particular sediment entrainment. These processes respond to rainfall intensity variations over short intervals, yet measurement of rainfall intensity at sufficient resolution is available only at a limited number of locations across Australia. On the other hand there is good coverage of rainfall data registered at a daily time step, thus it is desirable to establish a means to estimate within-day distributions of rainfall intensity given the daily rainfall depth and other readily available hydrometeorological data (e.g. temperature, pressure). As a first step towards such a..