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Extreme rainfall events: evaluation with different instruments and measurement reliability

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Abstract

With regard to extreme events, it is well documented that an intensity of about 1 mm/min already represents an extreme intensity. Under alpine conditions, a precipitation event with an intensity of 3 mm/min has occurred. Therefore, the rain gauges in this region have to be able to measure in this and even in higher intensity ranges. This study deals with basic automated tipping-bucket rain (TBR) gauge and Bulk precipitation samplers, which are able to hold more than 95 % of the cumulative rainfall, that are verified within the space of the week without losses during the extreme events and with minimal evaporation loss. Bulk samplers collected more rainfall than TBR gauges in 110 of 221 extreme events analysed over the past 10 years. In 17 extreme events, an underestimation greater than 10 % was evaluated. The objective was to single out the counting errors associated with TBR gauge, during extreme events, so as to help the understanding of the measured differences between instruments in the field. We want to determine whether the automated precipitation gauge can provide a reliable and precise measurement of precipitation with particular interest regarding heavy and extreme events.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Mrs. Lindsay Schwarting for the careful language revision of the manuscript. We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers whose suggestions allowed us to improve the presentation of our results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Ecosystem Study, CNR, Largo Tonolli 50, 28922, Verbania, Italy

    Helmi Saidi, Marzia Ciampittiello & Claudia Dresti

  2. Institute for Hydrogeological Protection, CNR, Turin, Italy

    Laura Turconi

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  1. Helmi Saidi
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  2. Marzia Ciampittiello
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  3. Claudia Dresti
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  4. Laura Turconi
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Correspondence to Helmi Saidi.

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Saidi, H., Ciampittiello, M., Dresti, C. et al. Extreme rainfall events: evaluation with different instruments and measurement reliability. Environ Earth Sci 72, 4607–4616 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3358-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3358-7

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