Calibration of tipping bucket rain gauges in the Graz urban research area

The Institute of Urban Water Management and Landscape Water Engineering of the Graz University of Technology (Austria) operates a hydrological research area in the City of Graz. In this urban research area precipitation and runoff data are collected by order of the municipality of Graz. At present precipitation data are measured by seven tipping bucket rain gauges. Comparative measurements have shown a deviation between the recorded and the actual precipitation intensity. This made the institute calibrate the rain gauges periodically. In the middle of the 1990s, the development of a field calibration kit was started. Based on the experiences with the first field calibration kit, a microprocessor controlled device was developed. With this calibration device, the tipping bucket rain gauges are calibrated at regular intervals. In this paper the calibration process and the current results for seven rain gauges are discussed. The calibration process is dynamic calibration and uses a peristaltic pump. Not all of the tipping buckets investigated underestimate the rain intensity in the whole measuring range. Several rain gauges have a positive relative deviation, not exceeding 22%, in the low intensity range up to 0.5 mm/min. Positive deviation can be explained by retention of water in the buckets between tips. The reason for the negative deviation is the loss of water during the tips. It leads to the underestimate of the actual intensity. The largest relative deviation in the range of underestimate exceeds 30%. In the range of extreme intensities, the larger buckets (5 cm³) show a lower relative deviation than the smaller (2 cm³) buckets. The gauge characteristic can change in favourable or unfavourable directions after several years. Therefore, the calibration of tipping buckets is recommended at least every 2 to 3 years.