Advanced Methods for Correcting Measured Precipitation and Results of Their Application in the Polar Regions of Russia and North America

E. G. Bogdanova, B. M. Il’in, and S. Yu. Gavrilova

The WMO recommendations on solid precipitation correction, based on generalized results of precipitation gauge intercomparisons performed in 1985–1996, do not take into account systematic errors in precipitation measurements such as wind-induced at high winds and false precipitation blown by wind into the precipitation gauge during strong blizzards at low temperatures, typical of high latitudes. To eliminate these biases in solid precipitation measurements in the Arctic latitudes, special procedures are proposed for three different national methods of precipitation measurement in Russia, the United States (Alaska), and Canada. Differences in the correction methods in these countries are caused by differences in the design of instruments, observation technique, climate, and content of data archives for calculating the measurement errors. Results of application of the proposed procedures for precipitation correction in the Arctic regions of the above-mentioned countries are discussed. The results are compared against the maps of corrected precipitation in the world water budget and snow, ice resources atlases and in the Handbook for Climate of the USSR.