Summary
Precipitation regionalization techniques alternatively advocated by Johnston [15] and Willmott [30] are reviewed and compared. An implementation by Johnston [15] of the information theory or entropy method was determined to have limited applicability —principally owing to its inability (1) to describe periodicies that are inherent in the seasonal cycle and (2) to account for differences between time-series of precipitation with respect to their means. The entropy method, however, has a practical appeal because the spatial distribution of stations has a relatively minor, deleterious impact on the regionalization [15]. On the other hand, the principal components-based procedure described by Willmott [30] includes more information about precipitation in the evaluation of regional patterns, e.g., station means, and it is well-able to characterize periodicities in the variance. With the appropriate experimental design, the combination of principal components analysis and grouping is regarded as superior to the entropy method in identifying and characterizing precipitation regimes and regions.
Zusammenfassung
Die von Johnston [15] und Willmott [30] vorgeschlagenen Methoden zur Berechnung des Gebietsniederschlages werden besprochen und miteinander verglichen. Eine Anwendung der Informationstheorie oder Entropiemethode, von Johnston [15] vorgeschlagen, besitzt nur beschränkte Möglichkeiten, hauptsächlich wegen der Unfähigkeit, 1. die im Jahresgang enthaltenen Periodizitäten zu beschreiben und 2. die Unterschiede zwischen den zeitlichen Reihen des Niederschlages und deren Mittelwerten zu erklären. Die Entropiemethode hat jedoch praktische Vorzüge, da die räumliche Verteilung der Stationen nur einen relativ geringen, ungünstigen Einfluss auf die Gebietswerte hat [15]. Die auf den Hauptkomponenten beruhenden Berechnungen von Willmott [30] beinhalten andererseits mehr Information über den Niederschlag in der Beurteilung der gebietsmässigen Verteilung, z.B. der Stationsmittelwerte, und ist gut in der Lage, Periodizitäten in der Varianz zu charakterisieren. Bei entsprechender Anwendung der Methoden ist eine Kombination von Hauptkomponentenanalyse und Gruppierungen der Entropiemethode bei der Charakterisierung von Niederschlagsregimen und -regionen überlegen.
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Legates, D.R., Willmott, C.J. A comparative evaluation of principal components-based and information theory methods of precipitation regionalization. Arch. Met. Geoph. Biocl., Ser. B 32, 381–394 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02324658
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02324658