Bias Correction of Gauge Data and its Effect on Precipitation Climatology over Mainland China

Typical rain gauge measurements have long been recognized to underestimate actual precipitation. Long-term daily precipitation records during 1961–2013 from a dense national network of 2379 gauges were corrected to remove systematic errors caused by trace precipitation, wetting losses, and wind-induced undercatch. The corrected percentage was higher in cold seasons and lower in warm seasons. Both trace precipitation and wetting loss corrections were more important in arid regions than in wet regions. A greater correction percentage for wind-induced error could be found in cold and arid regions, as well as high wind speed areas. Generally, the annual precipitation amounts as well as the annual precipitation intensity increased to varying degrees after bias correction with the maximum percentage being about 35%. More importantly, the bias-corrected snowfall amount as well as the rainstorm amount increased remarkably by percentages of more than 50% and 18%, respectively. Remarkably, the total number of actual rainstorm events during the past 53 years could be 90 days more than the observed rainstorm events in some coastal areas of China. Therefore, the actual amounts of precipitation, snowfall, and intense rainfall were much higher than previously measured over China. Bias correction is thus needed to obtain accurate estimates of precipitation amounts and precipitation intensity.