Revisiting multifractality in rainfall fields

The multifractal properties of a set of precipitation intensity fields measured during the Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP) Atlantic Tropical Experiment ( GATE) are studied, and it is shown that one cannot reject the null hypothesis that the fields are generated by a nonlinear transformation of a linear Gaussian process. These results indicate that the choice of representing rainfall fields in terms of multifractal cascades or as a nonlinear transformation of a linear Gaussian process should be based on physical motivations and not solely on the outcome of data analysis.