A Review of Models for Estimating 1 min Rainfall Rates for Microwave Attenuation Calculations

A search for information on short-duration precipitation rates uncovered several sources of data, primarily for North America and Europe. However, the data available, especially for 1 min rainfall rates, are insufficient to permit direct calculation of precipitation-rate frequency distributions for all but a few locations in the world. Due to the need for these statistics for microwave attenuation calculations, researchers developed models that can be used to estimate 1 min rainfall-rate distributions. Some require climatic data, while others divide the globe into regions, each of which is associated with a representative distribution. A survey of the available data and a comparison of models for determining short-duration precipitation rate distributions is presented, with particular emphasis on 1 min rates.