Automated Correction of Precipitation Records for Weighing Type Bucket Gauge Measurements
Location
Eccles Conference Center
Event Website
http://water.usu.edu/
Start Date
3-27-2006 5:30 PM
End Date
3-27-2006 5:45 PM
Description
Accurate precipitation data is one of the most important inputs for hydrological modeling. Weighing bucket gauges are often used where precipitation is received as both rain and snow. Errors in precipitation records from weighing bucket gauges may be introduced from missing data, bucket decanting (recharge), wind and electronic sensor drift. Manual correction of these errors in precipitation data records can be extremely tedious and time consuming. An automated methodology for correcting the errors has been developed in Visual Basic 6.0. The method operates by checking the variation in successive data values against user defined limits and replaces precipitation values outside of those limits with a null value. Excel was used to preprocess the input data file when: out of range data values occur at the beginning of end of file; precipitation occurred during a period of missing data; or gauge maintenance introduced a very small change in the apparent cumulative precipitation. The method was successfully applied to extensive precipitation data records from Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed. It proved more successful in removing discontinuities and filtering noise than the graphical method previously developed by the USDA Northwest Watershed Research Center. The corrected cumulative annual precipitation from the automated method did not exhibit a bias in error and matched measured annual total precipitation within two percent of the annual total for 64 station-years tested, whereas the graphical method exhibited opposing bias for the shielded and unshielded gauges and returned some errors over six percent.
Automated Correction of Precipitation Records for Weighing Type Bucket Gauge Measurements
Eccles Conference Center
Accurate precipitation data is one of the most important inputs for hydrological modeling. Weighing bucket gauges are often used where precipitation is received as both rain and snow. Errors in precipitation records from weighing bucket gauges may be introduced from missing data, bucket decanting (recharge), wind and electronic sensor drift. Manual correction of these errors in precipitation data records can be extremely tedious and time consuming. An automated methodology for correcting the errors has been developed in Visual Basic 6.0. The method operates by checking the variation in successive data values against user defined limits and replaces precipitation values outside of those limits with a null value. Excel was used to preprocess the input data file when: out of range data values occur at the beginning of end of file; precipitation occurred during a period of missing data; or gauge maintenance introduced a very small change in the apparent cumulative precipitation. The method was successfully applied to extensive precipitation data records from Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed. It proved more successful in removing discontinuities and filtering noise than the graphical method previously developed by the USDA Northwest Watershed Research Center. The corrected cumulative annual precipitation from the automated method did not exhibit a bias in error and matched measured annual total precipitation within two percent of the annual total for 64 station-years tested, whereas the graphical method exhibited opposing bias for the shielded and unshielded gauges and returned some errors over six percent.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/runoff/2006/AllAbstracts/40