Spatial characterization of raingauge networks: case study for the basin of Peñitas dam.

Abstract

A methodology to determine the relative importance of the location of a raingauge station within a meteorological or climatological network is presented based upon the induced error due to insufficient coverage. This analysis is carried out based on the mean error through the explained variance in the spatial domain, in which every raingauge station is considered. The whole raingauge network is taken as a reference base and then every station is randomly removed, along with its corresponding associated error. A regular-spaced grid obtained using the standard regression-kriging is used in the analysis since it proved to be the best methodology for including two variables at the same time for highly irregular terrains, as is the case for the Peñitas Basin. The greater the difference with respect to the reference grid, the greater the importance of the station, demonstrated by the value of the root mean square error. The analysis shows that the importance of each raingauge station varies for the two seasons studied (winter and summer). For example, the raingauge station in Ocotepec showed that its observations are important for the two periods, whereas other stations do not show the same agreement. This methodology is useful when the number of stations needs to be increased, since it helps to determine the optimum location of sites where the best spatial and local representation can be expected.