Recording rainfall stratigraphy: a modified storage gauge for measuring rainfall events

Standard storage rain gauges preserve nothing of the magnitude of individua l rainfall events. A low-technology modified storage gauge is described whi ch records event magnitudes but not their timing. A float in the gauge cont ains a collimated radioactive source which has its intensity calibrated so that each rainless period generates a line on a protected film. Rainfall ev ent magnitudes are recorded as the vertical intervals between consecutive h orizontal lines on the film. That is, the record represents a stratigraphic column of rainfall events at the gauge location. A network of the gauges a llows significant rainfall event "layers" to be linked through space analog ous to stratigraphic correlation. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.