On Precipitation Mapping in Iran

Investigating the spatial behavior of precipitation of Iran shows that preparation of a reliable precipitation map requires a deep knowledge of the spatial behavior of the precipitation before starting interpolation. No data areas, Topographic complexity, complexity of precipitation mechanisms, isotropicity, number of stations, and pixel size are the most important pre-interpolation aspects of digital precipitation maps for Iran. This study shows that minimum number of stations needed for preparation of a reliable precipitation map is about 500 and the best pixel size is about 14 kilometers.