A. Amani et T. Lebel, RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POINT RAINFALL, AVERAGE SAMPLED RAINFALL AND GROUND TRUTH AT THE EVENT SCALE IN THE SAHEL, Stochastic hydrology and hydraulics, 12(2), 1998, pp. 141-153
Geostatistical techniques are used to quantify the reference mean area
l rainfall (ground truth) from sparse raingauge networks. Based on the
EPSAT-Niger event cumulative rainfall, a linear relationship between
the ground truth considered as the mean area rainfall estimated from t
he densely available raingauge network and the area rainfall estimated
from sparse network are derived. Also, a linear relationship between
the ground truth and point rainfall is established. As it was reported
experimentally by some authors, the slope of these relationships is l
ess than one. Based on the geostatistical framework, the slope and the
ordinate at the origin can be estimated as a function of the spatial
structure of the rainfall process. It is shown that the slope is small
er than one. For the special case of one gauge inside a fixed area or
a Field Of View (FOV), an areal reduction factor is derived. It has a
limit value which depends only on the size of the area and the spatial
structure of the rainfall process. The relative variance error of est
imating the FOV cumulative rainfall from point rainfall is also given.