THE EFFECTS OF STATION NETWORK DENSITY ON STATISTICAL ANALYSES OF TROPICAL CYCLONE PRECIPITATION

Abstract:

In this paper, 1416 conventional ground-based meteorological observation stations on the mainland of China were subdivided into groups of differing spatial density. Data from each subgroup were then used to analyze variations in the tropical cyclone (TC) precipitation statistics derived from each subgroup across the mainland of China (excluding Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao), as well as in two regions (east China and south China) and three provinces (Guangdong, Hainan, and Jiangxi) between 1981 and 2010. The results showed that for the mainland of China, total precipitation, mean annual precipitation, mean daily precipitation, and its spatial distribution were the same regardless of the spatial density of the stations. However, some minor differences were evident with respect to precipitation extremes and their spatial distribution. Overall, there were no significant variations in the TC precipitation statistics calculated from different station density schemes for the mainland of China. The regional and provincial results showed no significant differences in mean daily precipitation, but this was not the case for the maximum daily precipitation and torrential rain frequency. The maximum daily precipitation calculated from the lower-density station data was slightly less than that based on the higher-density station schemes, and this effect should be taken into consideration when interpreting regional climate statistics. The impact of station density on TC precipitation characteristics was more obvious for Hainan than for Guangdong or Jiangxi provinces. In addition, the effects were greater for south China (including Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region, Guangdong, and Hainan provinces) than east China (including Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Fujian, Anhui, and Jiangxi provinces). Furthermore, the analysis proved that the statistical climatic characteristics began to change significantly when the station spacing was between 40 and 50 km, which are close to the mean spacing for all stations across the mainland of China. Moreover, TC areal precipitation parameters, including mean total areal precipitation and mean daily areal precipitation, also began to change significantly when the spacing was between 40 and 50 km, and were completely different when it was between 100 and 200 km.