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On the interpolation of precipitation data over complex terrain

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Summary

The aim of this paper is to test the ability of the Vienna Enhanced Resolution Analysis Scheme (VERA) to estimate areal precipitation over complex terrain in real-time. The investigation has been performed for two severe flooding episodes in the Alpine region within three domains. The areas of the domains differ by a factor of 10 approximately. An inverse distance weighting (IDW) approach has been used to compare the VERA-fields against the results of a common interpolation scheme. Beside the routinely and in real-time available SYNOP data, the precipitation data from the dense hydrological network have been utilized on a post event basis. Efficiency and root mean square error have been used as statistical measures to characterize the quality of the results. The mean areal precipitation can be well estimated for the two cases in view from the routine available SYNOP network in the largest domain (∼170,000 km2). Additional stations from the hydrological network increase the variance in the field but do not change the mean value substantially. This finding changes for smaller domains when the mean areal precipitation increases by a factor of two by using the dense hydrological network. The two interpolation methods used show quite similar results. It seems that the nature of precipitation (large-scale versus convective) has the strongest impact on the quality of the results. For example, the efficiency drops from 0.84 (for large scale event) to about 0.47 (for convective event).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Meteorology and Geophysics, University of Vienna, Wien, Austria

    M. Dorninger, S. Schneider & R. Steinacker

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  1. M. Dorninger
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  2. S. Schneider
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  3. R. Steinacker
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Correspondence to M. Dorninger.

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Correspondence: Manfred Dorninger, Department of Meteorology and Geophysis, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Wien, Austria

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Dorninger, M., Schneider, S. & Steinacker, R. On the interpolation of precipitation data over complex terrain. Meteorol Atmos Phys 101, 175–189 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-008-0287-6

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