STOCHASTIC KINEMATIC STUDY OF SUBSYNOPTIC SPACE-TIME RAINFALL

A kinematic stochastic approach to quantify the ground rainfall intensity field due to the passage of a large mesoscale area (LMSA) is presented. The theoretical developments are based on four postulates on the components of an LMSA which incorporate the spatial clustering that the rainfall cells have been observed to exhibit. These postulates lead to a representation of the rainfall field as a stochastic integral. An analysis of the structure of this integral reveals two auxiliary stochastic fields embedded within it. Not only do each of these admit an independent physical interpretation, but their analysis is a precursor to the analysis of the space‐time rainfall field. Some results on the space‐time dependence structure of the auxiliary fields are presented. As an application of these results, expressions are derived for the mean, variance, and the one‐dimensional characteristic function of rainfall intensity. A part of the mathematical construct also provides algorithms which can be used for simulating space‐time rainfall. Copyright 1979 by the American Geophysical Union.