What is the best interpolation method for precipitation?

What is the best interpolation method for precipitation?

The Kriging and the IDW (Interpolated Distance Weighted) methods are very good and suitable for rainfall data interpolation.

How does interpolation work in Arcgis?

Interpolates a raster surface, using barriers, from points using a minimum curvature spline technique. The barriers are entered as either polygon or polyline features. Interpolates a hydrologically correct raster surface from point, line, and polygon data.

What is data interpolation in GIS?

Interpolation is the process of using points with known values or sample points to estimate values at other unknown points. It can be used to predict unknown values for any geographic point data, such as elevation, rainfall, chemical concentrations, noise levels, and so on.

Is spline or IDW more accurate?

Inverse distance weighted is a deterministic estimation method where values at unmeasured points are determined by a linear combination of values at nearby measured points. They concluded that IDW and kriging performed similarly and that both are more accurate than the spline interpolation method.

What is the Thiessen polygon method?

A method of assigning areal significance to point rainfall values. These bisectors form a series of polygons, each polygon containing one station. The value of precipitation measured at a station is assigned to the whole area covered by the enclosing polygon.

Why interpolation is used in GIS?

The purpose of interpolating data in a GIS is often to create continuous surfaces from point or line data. For example, contour lines showing the topography can be interpolated to create a Digital Elevation Model (DEM), which is a continuous surface showing the elevation in a gridded (raster) model.

What is data extrapolation in GIS?

GIS Dictionary. extrapolation. [statistics] Using known or observed data to infer or calculate values for unobserved times, locations or other variables outside a sampled area. In the absence of data, extrapolation is a common method for making predictions, but it is not always accurate.

When should you interpolate data?

It is often required to interpolate; that is, estimate the value of that function for an intermediate value of the independent variable. A few data points from the original function can be interpolated to produce a simpler function which is still fairly close to the original.

Why is kriging better than IDW?

In IDW only known z values and distance weights are used to determine unknown areas. Kriging is most appropriate when you know there is a spatially correlated distance or directional bias in the data.

When can I use kriging or IDW?

Use Kriging if there is a spatially correlated distance or bias in the data. IDW determines cell values using a linearly weighted combination of a set of sample points. The weight is a function of the inverse distance between them. The surface should be that of a locationally dependent variable.

Why is Thiessen polygon method better?

The Thiessen polygon method for computing the mean areal rainfall. in which Wi = Ai/A, where Ai is the area represented by the station i and A is the total catchment area. Clearly, the weights will sum to unity. An advantage of this method is that the data of stations outside the catchment may also be used.

How is spatial interpolation used in rainfall modeling?

This paper presents spatial interpolation techniques to produce finer-scale daily rainfall data from regional climate modeling. Four common interpolation techniques (ANUDEM, Spline, IDW, and Kriging) were compared and assessed against station rainfall data and modeled rainfall.

How is an elevation surface interpolated in ArcGIS?

Interpolating an elevation surface. A typical use for point interpolation is to create an elevation surface from a set of sample measurements. In the following graphic, each symbol in the point layer represents a location where the elevation has been measured. By interpolating, the values for each cell between these input points will be predicted.

Do you need to group precipitation by year in ArcGIS?

If so, your resulting map will be “precipitation for 2013”, not average annual precipitation. If it is 1961-1990 (or some other interval), then you need to group and summarize the precipitation by year.

What can interpolation be used for in a raster?

Interpolation predicts values for cells in a raster from a limited number of sample data points. It can be used to predict unknown values for any geographic point data, such as elevation, rainfall, chemical concentrations, and noise levels.