World's greatest observed point rainfalls: Jennings (1950) scaling law

Zhang, Huan; Fraedrich, Klaus F.; Zhu, Xiuhua; Blender, Richard; Zhang, Ling

doi:10.1175/JHM-D-13-074.1

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World's greatest observed point rainfalls: Jennings (1950) scaling law

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Zhang, Huan
Max Planck Fellows, MPI for Meteorology, Max Planck Society;

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Fraedrich, Klaus F.
Max Planck Fellows, MPI for Meteorology, Max Planck Society;

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Citation

Zhang, H., Fraedrich, K. F., Zhu, X., Blender, R., & Zhang, L. (2013). World's greatest observed point rainfalls: Jennings (1950) scaling law. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 14, 1952-1957. doi:10.1175/JHM-D-13-074.1.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-0014-C341-8

Abstract

The observed relation of worldwide precipitation maxima P versus duration d follows the Jennings scaling law, P ≈ d b, with scaling coefficient b ≈ 0.5. This scaling is demonstrated to hold for single-station rainfall extending over three decades. A conceptual stochastic rainfall model that reveals similar scaling behavior is introduced as a first-order autoregressive process [AR(1)] to represent the lower tropospheric vertical moisture fluxes, whose upward components balance the rainfall while the downward components are truncated and defined as no rain. Estimates of 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) vertical moisture flux autocorrelations (at grids near the rainfall stations) provide estimates for the truncated AR(1). Subjected to maximum depth-duration analysis, the scaling coefficient b ≈ 0.5 is obtained extending for about two orders of magnitude, which is associated with a wide range of vertical moisture flux autocorrelations 0.1 < a < 0.7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]