Spatial coherence of rainfall variations using the Oklahoma Mesonet

KM Boone; RA McPherson; MB Richman; DJ Karoly

Journal article

Spatial coherence of rainfall variations using the Oklahoma Mesonet

KM Boone, RA McPherson, MB Richman, DJ Karoly

International Journal of Climatology | WILEY-BLACKWELL | Published : 2012

DOI: 10.1002/joc.2322

Abstract

Studies on precipitation patterns and the spatial distribution of precipitation are beneficial for many aspects of society, including agriculture, transportation, and business. In this research, data from over 100 Oklahoma Mesonet stations were used in a space-time decomposition of Oklahoma rainfall from 1 March 1994 to 31 December 2003. Spatially coherent patterns of annual, warm-season, and cold-season rainfall events were derived using principal component analysis. Because the Oklahoma Mesonet records rainfall every 5 min, relatively short events (e.g. 15 min or 3 h) could be examined. Moreover, rainfall events were split into warm season and cold season to better understand the spatial d..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

David Karoly Author

Related Projects (1)

Improving understanding of climate change and its impacts in Australia through detection and attribution of climate change

This research will quantify the contribution to Australian regional climate change due to greenhouse gases, which will assist policymakers i..

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Awarded by National Science Foundation

Funding Acknowledgements

The taxpayers of Oklahoma fund the Oklahoma Mesonet through the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education and the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety. David Karoly is supported by an Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship (project FF0668679). Michael Richman is supported by a National Science Foundation Grant (AGS0831359). The authors are grateful to Andrew Reader for his additional quality assurance of the rainfall data set used in this study.