Objective analysis of convective scale rainfall using gages and radar

A functional representation of the morphology and evolution of a mesoscale convective storm is illustrated using HIPLEX radar reflectivities and gage rainfall data observed in Montana. The use of this function in obtaining maximum likelihood estimates of storm-total rainfall and in the optimal deployment of the sensor network is also discussed. It is shown that after four gages per individual storm-total area have been deployed, the marginal benefit realized by adding one more gage is very small if the radar reflectivity data are combined optimally with observations from these gages to produce storm-total rainfall.