Hydrology and Water Resources

720128
September 22, 2017
STARTER
 PRECIPITATION

3
RS & GISc, Institute of Space Technology
Learning Outcomes
• At the end of this lecture students will be able to;

• Know – Precipitation, its types and measurements

• Calculate – the mean watershed precipitation
• Learn – the techniques to compensate missing precipitation
data
Precipitation
• Any form of solid and liquid water that falls from atmosphere to earth surface

• Rain,

• drizzle,

• hail,

• dew,

• snow
Types of Precipitation
• The precipitation types can be categorized as
• Frontal Precipitation
• The formation of precipitation due to the convergence of two air masses with
contrasting temperature and densities
• Convective Precipitation
• The air close to the warm earth gets heated and rises due to its low density,
cools adiabatically and clouds are made that burst into thunderstorm
• Convective storms are generally known as thunderstorms
• When accompanied by destructive winds, they are called ‘tornados’.
• Orographic Precipitation
• Uplift of an air mass because of a topographic obstruction.
• Uplift also causes the cooling of the air mass. If enough cooling occurs
condensation can occur and form into orographic precipitation
• Cyclonic Precipitation
• Air mass that converges into a low pressure area moves up due to
difference in pressure and winds blow spirally inward

• Precipitation due to Turbulent Ascent

• Condensation of air mass that moves up due to increased
turbulence and friction of earth surface after its travel over ocean
Measurement of Precipitation

Why we need to measure precipitation?

What meant by measuring the precipitation?

• Total amount (depth) over some time period (hourly, daily,

monthly, seasonally, or annually)
Problems:
• Many records are not available for rural areas
• Discontinuous or short term
Hyetograph and Mass Curve

• Hyetograph is the graphical plot of the rainfall plotted

against time
• Mass Curve of rainfall is a plot of accumulated rainfall
against time
 Plotting a Hyetograph

Area under hyetograph represents the total rainfall received in the period
 Rainfall Mass Curve

Plot of accumulated rainfall against time

Methods of Measurement

• Rain gauges
• Radar (Radio Detection and Ranging)
• Weather Satellites
Rain Gauges

• Symon’s (non-recording) Type

• Weighing Bucket Type (mass curve)
• Tipping Bucket
• Siphon or Floating Gauge
• Storage Rain Gauge (for remote areas)
• Telemetering Rain Gauge (inaccessible places)
• Automatic Radio Reporting Gauge
Symon’s
Weighing bucket type
Tipping Bucket
Siphon Rain gauge
 Selection of Rain Gauge Site?

• Open space
• Least obstructions
• Distance between gauge and the nearest object should be at
least twice the height of the object
• On leveled ground (slopes are not recommended)
• In hilly areas if level ground is not available, place at top of the
hill
• Shield from high wind
• If fence is provided then it should not be less than twice its
height
Adequacy of Rainfall Station

• A well distributed network is essential

• Statistical Analysis
• To give necessary average rainfall with certain % Error
• Number of stations required for a given area
• How to estimate? (Reference: Hydrology by Das &
Saikia)
 World Meteorological Organization
(WMO) Recommendations

• Flat regions of Temperate, Mediterranean and Tropical zones

• Ideal – 1 station for 600-900 sq.km.
• Acceptable – 1 station for 900-3,000 sq.km.
• Mountainous regions of Temperate, Mediterranean and Tropical
zones
• Ideal – 1 station for 100-250 sq.km.
• Acceptable – 1 station for 250-1,000 sq.km.
• Arid and Polar zones
• Ideal – 1 station for 1,500-10,000 sq.km. Depending on the feasibility.
• 10% of rain gauge stations should be equipped with self recording rain gauges
Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
Recommendations

• In plains
• 1 station for every 520 sq.km.
• In regions with average elevation of 1,000 m or above
from mean sea level
• 1 station per 260-390 sq.km.
• In hilly areas with heavy rainfall
• 1 station for every 130 sq.km.
Estimation of Optimum number of Rain Gauges
Examples
Analysis of Precipitation

• Mean Rainfall
• Estimating Missing data
• Double Mass Analysis
• Frequency Analysis
• Depth Area Duration Curve
• Rainfall Hyetographs
• Intensity Duration Frequency Curve
• Frequency (IDF) Curves
Calculation of Mean Watershed
Precipitation

• Arithmetic Method
• Thiessen Polygon Method
• Isohyetal Method
 Arithmetic Method
• Simplest Method

• Where:
• Pm = Average Rainfall in the catchment
• n = number of rain gauge stations
• P1, P2, ….. Pn= Recorded rain at station 1, 2, ….n respectively in a
given period

• Limitations????
 Thiessen Polygon Method
• Tries to eliminate the error due to non-uniformity of rain gauge
distribution
• Suggested by A. M. Thiessen in 1911

A1, A2,…..A6 = polygon areas

• Thiessen Polygon Method Steps:

1. Join stations by line

2. Draw perpendicular bisector of these lines
3. The perpendicular bisector produces polygons called Thiessen
polygons
4. Calculate average rainfall of the area

5. P1, P2….. =rainfall in stations 1, 2….

Thiessen’s Weights
Isohyetal Method
• More accurate than other methods
• Location and precipitation are plotted
• Contours of equal precipitation called Isohyets are drawn
• Calculate area between successive isohyets
• The equivalent uniform depth of precipitation between
isohyets is assumed to be equal to the median value of
two isohyets
 Adjustment for Missing Data
• If rain gauge data at 1 or 2 stations is missing
1. Interpolation in the estimation of average rainfall
2. Data from neighboring stations is used
3. ‘Normal Rainfall’ used as a standard for comparison
• ‘Normal Rainfall’ is the average value of rainfall at a particular date,
month or year over a specified 30-year period.
Estimating Point Rainfall at a given Location

• Interpolation
• From recorded values at surrounding sites

• Arithmetic Mean Method

• Inverse distance square
• Normal Ratio Method
• Station Year Method
• Double Mass Curve
Arithmetic Mean Method
• Break in station data
• Requires data from at least 3 other stations (evenly distributed) close
to that station
• Normal precipitation at other stations should be within 10% of
precipitation at that station

• PA, PB, PC = Precipitation at nearby stations

• Px = Estimated precipitation of the missing station
 Inverse Distance

• From recorded values at surrounding sites

• Based on weighted average of surrounding values
• The weights are reciprocals of the sum of square of
distances, measured from the point of interest
Normal Ratio Method

• When normal annual precipitation of nearby stations ( NA,

NB, NC, ..) differs more than 10% of that of the station (Nx)
with missing data

• N= Normal Precipitation
Station Year Method

• Record of 2 or more independent stations are combined

• Area of these stations should be climatologically same

• Missing record at certain station in particular year is found by ratio

of the average

PA2000/PA1999 = PB2000/PB1999
Double Mass Analysis
• For checking the consistency of a station against one or more nearby
stations
• Consider a station E collecting data for 45 years
• For some reasons, the catch of the station is affected
• There are other stations H and I with same storm patterns though their
annual rainfall differ
• Check for a consistent correlation between the averages of H and I
and that of E in early years
• Plot the accumulated annual rainfall at E against the accumulated
average annual rainfall at H and I
• Correct the existing rainfall catch at E when the relationship changes
against the previous relationship
Double Mass Curve
Radar Measurement
• Weather radar detects, measure and locates precipitation
• Usually used to supplement gauge data
• Radar signals reflected by rain
• Determine magnitude and areal distribution
• Sending microwave signals and listening for return signals
• Timings of return signals give range of an object
• The amount of energy reflected back to the radar is proportional
to the precipitation intensity
Weather satellites

• Used to monitor weather and climate of the Earth

• Can provide useful information on rainfall distribution over
large areas and inaccessible regions
• Direct measurement of rainfall from satellites is not
feasible because the presence of clouds
 Weather satellites

• Provide information only about the cloud tops rather than cloud bases or
interiors
Examples
• Polar orbiting
• NOAA-N series
• Geostationary
• GOES (operated by the United States National Environmental
Satellite)
• GMS (by the Japan Meteorological Agency), and
• Meteosat
Rain-Gauge Data Spatial
Interpolation

• When interpolation methods are appropriate?

• when an attribute measured at sample points is a spatially
continuous field variable
• Involves estimating the rainfall values at unmeasured
points
Spatial Interpolation Methods

• Nearest neighbor (Thiessen Polygon Method )

• Isohyetal
• Triangulation
• Distance weighting
• Krigging
Triangulation

• Joining of adjacent data points by a line to form a lattice of triangles

(TIN)
• Values at any intermediate point on the surface can be computed
through trigonometry
Distance weighting

• Moving-average procedure using points within a specified

zone of influence
• Example: Inverse distance weighting
• weights are inversely proportional to the square of the distance
between the point of interest and each of the data points
Kriging

• Also based on a weighted sum of the points within a zone

of influence
• weights in kriging are determined from a set of n
simultaneous linear equations, where n is the number of
points used for the estimation
• Based on spatial correlation
• points closer together tend to be strongly correlated,
whereas those far apart lack correlation
PRISM?

• Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model

• Expert system that uses point data and a digital elevation model
(DEM) to generate gridded estimates of climate parameters
• Developed to overcome the deficiencies of standard spatial
interpolation methods, where orographic effects strongly influence
weather patterns
• PRISM has been used to map temperature, snowfall, weather
generator statistics, and others
• Uses DEM
PRISM (conti..)

• For each DEM grid cell, PRISM develops a weighted

precipitation/elevation (P/E) regression function from nearby
stations, and predicts precipitation at the cell’s DEM elevation with
this function
• In the regression, greater weight is given to stations with locations,
elevations, and topographic positionings similar to that of the grid
cell
• Whenever possible, PRISM calculates a prediction interval for the
estimate, which is an approximation of the uncertainty involved.
DISCUSSION
&
Questions