2002 ARCSS All-Hands Workshop

Adjustment of Daily Precipitation Data at Barrow Alaska for 1995-2000

Jennifer L Benning¹, Daqing Yang², Douglas L Kane^3
1Water and Environmental Resources Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 456 Duckering Building, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA, Phone 907-474-5396, Fax 907-474-7979, ffjlb2@uaf.edu
²Water and Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA, ffdy@uaf.edu
³Water and Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA, ffdlk@uaf.edu

It has been recognized that systematic errors in precipitation measurements caused by wind-induced undercatch, wetting and evaporation losses affect all types of precipitation gauges. These errors are more sensitive for solid precipitation than for rain. In Arctic regions, these systematic errors become significantly more pronounced than for other regions due to the relatively slow precipitation rates (frequent occurrences of “trace” precipitation days), low temperatures, high winds, and low annual precipitation measurements that are characteristic of the Arctic climate. This study performed daily adjustments to measured precipitation data for a six-year period, from 1995 through 2000, for the National Weather Service (NWS) station in Barrow, Alaska. The study indicated that the adjustments resulted in increases of 14-272% to the average monthly gauge-measured precipitation and 58% to the total precipitation for the six years It is expected that these increases will impact climate monitoring, the understanding of the Arctic freshwater balance, and the assessment of atmospheric model performance in the Arctic.

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