Rainfall rate modeling for various rainfall types in South Africa

Author

Alonge, A.A. ; Afullo, T.J.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr., Electron. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

fYear

2011

fDate

13-15 Sept. 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

6

Abstract

This paper models the rainfall rate in Durban (29° 97´S, 30°95´E), South Africa for four different rainfall classifications: drizzle, widespread, shower and thunderstorm. Twelve-months data obtained in 2009 via the Joss_Waldvogel disdrometer, gave a total of 729 independent rain events and 5,542,147 raindrops. The measured rain rate probability functions were compared with the Moupfouma model using 1-minute integration time. The maximum likelihood estimators were adopted for the parameters of two other statistical models, the lognormal and gamma models. The results show that gamma model had the closest performance for the various rain classifications under consideration.

Keywords

gamma distribution; log normal distribution; maximum likelihood estimation; rain; AD 2009; Durban; Joss_Waldvogel disdrometer; Moupfouma model; South Africa; drizzle; gamma model; lognormal model; maximum likelihood estimation; rain event; rain rate probability function; raindrops; rainfall classification; rainfall rate modeling; rainfall type; shower; thunderstorm; widespread rain; Analytical models; Conferences; Data models; Density measurement; Educational institutions; Probability density function; Rain; Integration time; rainfall classifications; rainfall rate; rainfall rate distribution;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

AFRICON, 2011

Conference_Location

Livingstone

ISSN

2153-0025

Print_ISBN

978-1-61284-992-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AFRCON.2011.6072002

Filename

6072002