TY  - JOUR
A1  - Traxl, Dominik
A1  - Boers, Niklas
A1  - Rheinwalt, Aljoscha
A1  - Goswami, Bedartha
A1  - Kurths, Jürgen
T1  - The size distribution of spatiotemporal extreme rainfall clusters around the globe
JF  - Geophysical research letters
N2  - The scaling behavior of rainfall has been extensively studied both in terms of event magnitudes and in terms of spatial extents of the events. Different heavy-tailed distributions have been proposed as candidates for both instances, but statistically rigorous treatments are rare. Here we combine the domains of event magnitudes and event area sizes by a spatiotemporal integration of 3-hourly rain rates corresponding to extreme events derived from the quasi-global high-resolution rainfall product Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission 3B42. A maximum likelihood evaluation reveals that the distribution of spatiotemporally integrated extreme rainfall cluster sizes over the oceans is best described by a truncated power law, calling into question previous statements about scale-free distributions. The observed subpower law behavior of the distribution's tail is evaluated with a simple generative model, which indicates that the exponential truncation of an otherwise scale-free spatiotemporal cluster size distribution over the oceans could be explained by the existence of land masses on the globe.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL070692
SN  - 0094-8276
SN  - 1944-8007
VL  - 43
SP  - 9939
EP  - 9947
PB  - American Geophysical Union
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rheinwalt, Aljoscha
A1  - Boers, Niklas
A1  - Marwan, Norbert
A1  - Kurths, Jürgen
A1  - Hoffmann, Peter
A1  - Gerstengarbe, Friedrich-Wilhelm
A1  - Werner, Peter
T1  - Non-linear time series analysis of precipitation events using regional climate networks for Germany
JF  - Climate dynamics : observational, theoretical and computational research on the climate system
N2  - Synchronous occurrences of heavy rainfall events and the study of their relation in time and space are of large socio-economical relevance, for instance for the agricultural and insurance sectors, but also for the general well-being of the population. In this study, the spatial synchronization structure is analyzed as a regional climate network constructed from precipitation event series. The similarity between event series is determined by the number of synchronous occurrences. We propose a novel standardization of this number that results in synchronization scores which are not biased by the number of events in the respective time series. Additionally, we introduce a new version of the network measure directionality that measures the spatial directionality of weighted links by also taking account of the effects of the spatial embedding of the network. This measure provides an estimate of heavy precipitation isochrones by pointing out directions along which rainfall events synchronize. We propose a climatological interpretation of this measure in terms of propagating fronts or event traces and confirm it for Germany by comparing our results to known atmospheric circulation patterns.
KW  - Rainfall
KW  - Complex networks
KW  - Precipitation events
KW  - Anisotropy
KW  - Dominant link directions
KW  - Isochrones
KW  - Event synchronization
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2632-z
SN  - 0930-7575
SN  - 1432-0894
VL  - 46
SP  - 1065
EP  - 1074
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York
ER  -