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Arid Land Geography ›› 2022, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (3): 706-714.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2021.341

• Climate Change • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Cluster analysis with statistical test of precipitation distribution in Qilian Mountains and its surrounding area and evaluation of artificial precipitation enhancement in typical watershed

GUO Xiaoqin1,2(),LI Guangming2,SUN Zhanfeng2,WANG Xingtao2   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory for Cloud Physical Environment of China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China
    2. Wuwei Meteorological Bureau, Wuwei 733000, Gansu, China
  • Received:2021-07-30 Revised:2021-11-14 Online:2022-05-25 Published:2022-05-31

Abstract:

The topography of Qilian Mountains and its surrounding areas in northwest China is complex, and the precipitation it receives is extremely irregular in time and space. The ability to characterize the distribution of rainfall and snowfall has great practical significance for understanding changes in precipitation patterns. Using data from 31 base stations covering the months of May-September, 1961—2020, precipitation was analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA). The significance of the results was then tested by cluster analysis with statistical test (CAST). Finally, a geographic zonation was applied to evaluate the effects of artificial precipitation enhancement. The results show that: (1) Seven geographic areas (Z1-Z7) can satisfactorily represent the characteristics of precipitation distribution in the study area (the contribution rate of cumulative variance exceeds 78%). (2) The zones take Ledu, Haiyan, Yeniugou, Wuwei, Gaotai, Linze, and Gangcha stations as the central points respectively, and their zonal characteristics significantly reflect precipitation, terrain, and altitude. (3) Effects of artificial precipitation enhancement were evaluated by statistical regression of regional historical data. For the months of May-September during 1992—2020, the benefit was most pronounced in the Shiyang River Basin, where the absolute enhancement was 8.91 mm and the relative precipitation enhancement rate was 6.51% with the highest in July (6.30 mm, 21.86%), followed by August (5.44 mm, 16.11%). Assessing artificial enhancement of precipitation based on ground data relies heavily on the selection of a suitable comparison area, so results can change significantly with different comparison choices. The method of cluster analysis with statistical testing is not only helpful in zoning and classification of precipitation in complex terrain, but it also provides an objective basis for the selection of comparison areas.

Key words: cluster analysis with statistical test (CAST), principal component analysis (PCA), division and classification, evaluation of precipitation enhancement effects