Inter-comparison of Precipitation Gauges for Water Survey Monitoring

Description

By Scotia Brailsford and Meghan Forget, Completed for: Ministry of Natural Resources; Supervising Professor: Tom Whillans; Trent Community Research Centre, Precipitation gauges have historically been a valuable asset for surface water monitoring (Tokay et al​, 2010), as well as predicting climatic change and seasonal variation (Grieser, 2015). This study will focus on the performances of three precipitation gauges at the Trent Climate Station in Peterborough, Ontario. The motivation of this project is to evaluate the potential of the new Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (OMNRF) precipitation gauge for its provincial surface water monitoring network. We will evaluate the effectiveness of the new OMNRF gauge by comparing it to the data gathered from Trent’s established gauges, the Tipping bucket and GEONOR models. In doing so, we hope to provide insight on whether the new model of gauge is an improvement, equivalent, or less reliable when compared with the established models. We will compare reliability, ease of use, and potential applications in order to help determine the benefits and drawbacks of the new gauge.