Inter-station correlation and estimation errors of areal average rain rate

In this study an equation for estimating the error involved in the areal average rain rate considering the inter-station correlation was derived and applied for two cases: the first compared two storm events with different inter-station correlations, and the second evaluated the seasonal variation of estimation error of monthly rainfall. Similar cases, but without considering the rainfall seasonality, were also investigated for the comparison. This study was applied to the Geum River Basin with 28 rain gauge measurements, each having more than 30 years of rainfall data. A summary of the application results follows: (1) When considering the inter-station correlation, the estimation error involved in the areal average rain rate became significantly decreased proportional to the inter-station correlation. (2) The estimation error of monthly areal average rainfall showed strong seasonality with high ones during the wet season and lower ones during the dry season. (3) The estimation error was well proportional to the areal average rain rate as well as to its standard deviation. The ratio of estimation error to the areal average rain rate itself was estimated to be about 0.1 for the case of assuming no inter-station correlations, but decreased to 0.06 for the case of considering the inter-station correlations between measurements. (4) The relation between the standard deviation of areal average rain rate and the estimation error became much stronger than that between the areal average rain rate itself and the estimation error. The ratio of estimation error to the standard deviations of rain rate amount was estimated to be about 0.2 for the case of assuming no inter-station correlations, but decreased to 0.1 for the case of considering the inter-station correlations. This relation was found to be valid for any case of accumulation time such as in daily, monthly, or annual rainfall data.     

Mantle structure from inter-station Rayleigh wave dispersion and its tectonic implication in western China and neighboring regions

We processed more than 3000 inter-station great circle paths to determine the phase velocity for the fundamental mode of Rayleigh wave, and finally arrived at 110 paths of high quality dispersion data, which show good spatial coverage in western China and neighboring regions. Rayleigh wave phase velocity dispersion model WChina1D was obtained and compared with previous global and regional models. Phase velocity maps from 15 to 120 s were inverted and the maps of 20, 40, 80, and 120 s are presented in this paper. Checkerboard tests show the average lateral resolution in our area of interest is about 7°. Our tomographic results corroborate a prominent low-velocity anomaly lying mainly in the lower crust and uppermost mantle in the Chang Thang terrane. The apparent low-velocity anomaly also appears in the wide area of northeastern Tibet in the crust and upper mantle. The low-velocity area around southeastern Tibet may be created by the southeastern migration of the low-velocity mass of the Tibetan plateau. The eastern Tarim shows structure with higher velocities relative to that of central Tarim. A large-scale low-velocity anomaly is clearly seen in central and western Mongolia. Our high quality measurements were also used to evaluate the CUB global shear velocity model [Shapiro, N., Ritzwoller, M., 2002. Monte-Carlo inversion for a global shear-velocity model of the crust and upper mantle. Geophys. J. Int. 151, 88-105] of the crust and upper mantle. The 40 s Rayleigh phase velocity map predicted from CUB model shows an apparent discrepancy with our measurements in western China and western Mongolia, which implies a higher estimated (about +1-2%) phase velocity model in these regions, probably due to the Gaussian smoothing condition in their tomography inversion.