Correction of synoptic precipitation observations due to systematic measuring errors with special regard to precipitation phases

A recently developed method for event-based daily bias-correction of synopt ic precipitation observations regarding systematic measuring errors was tra nsfered at the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) from regional to global applications. Using the reported present weather, an analysis ba sed on more than 600 000 global synoptic data from 16 winter months was don e, which made it possible to relate air temperature and dew point temperatu re to the probable distribution of liquid, solid and mixed precipitation ph ase. Based on this information, synoptic precipitation observations can be corrected regarding systematic measuring errors on a daily resolution, whic h makes the estimation of extreme precipitation events more reliable. (C) 2 001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.