Spatio-temporal variations of precipitation considering the orographic effects on Jeju Island

Abstract

In this study, we use factor analysis and spatial analysis to study the spatio-temporal distribution of daily precipitation on Jeju Island, which includes marine and mountainous areas. The precipitation time series from 82 weather stations were used to fill in missing and ungauged data for some periods at 38 stations, and then the daily spatial distribution was analyzed from 1992 to 2013. Factor analysis and multiple regression showed that the statistical characteristics of the extended data fit well to those of the observed time series. The point precipitation characteristics, such as the mean and standard deviation, show small differences between observed and extended data, and the relationships to elevation also have similar behavior for seasonal and annual precipitation. However, the spatial precipitation characteristics for observed and extended data show significant differences with respect to elevation because the data for high-elevation areas are mainly interpolated for the period 1992 to 2013. For annual and five-year moving-average spatial precipitation, the amount of precipitation shows seasonal and spatial variability. Annual spatial precipitation in high-elevation areas usually shows high variation over time. These results suggest the need to consider completing missing and ungauged data series for assessment the spatio-temporal variation of precipitation.