THE MODIFIED TURNING BANDS (MTB) MODEL FOR SPACE-TIME RAINFALL .2. ESTIMATION OF RAINCELL PARAMETERS

The Modified Turning Bands (MTB) model is used to produce synthetic da ta sets in the same format as those obtained from two radar sites in n orthern England, and these synthetic data are used to determine the ac curacy to which the raincell parameters of the MTB model (raincell vel ocity, diameter, lifetime, peak intensity and average spatial density) can be estimated. Two different techniques are used for the estimatio n problems: full correlation analysis for the velocity, diameter and l ifetime, and the internal covariance analysis developed theoretically in Part I of this paper for the estimation of maximum rainfall intensi ty and average density. Having determined the accuracy that can be obt ained using synthetic, error-free radar data, thus giving an upper bou nd on the accuracy which can be achieved in practice, the methods are applied to real data to gain insight into the ranges and distributions of the model parameters which occur in nature.