HIGH-RESOLUTION STUDIES OF RAINFALL ON NORFOLK ISLAND PART II - INTERPOLATION OF RAINFALL DATA

Four spatial interpolation methods are compared using rainfall data fr om a network of thirteen rain gauges on Norfolk Island (area 35 km(2)) . The purpose is to obtain spatially continuous rainfall estimates acr oss the island, from point measurements and for different integration times, by the most effective means. The more computationally demanding method of kriging provided no significant improvement over any of the much simpler inverse-distance, Thiessen, or areal-mean methods, In or der to assimilate some of the characteristics of spatially varying rai nfall, and based on the comparisons performed, the inverse-distance me thod is recommended for interpolations using spatially dense networks. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.