STORAGE (STOchastic RAinfall generator): A user-friendly software for generating long and high-resolution rainfall time series

Abstract

The MS Excel file with VBA (Visual Basic for Application) macros named STORAGE (STOchastic RAinfall GEnerator) is introduced herein. STORAGE is a temporal stochastic simulator aiming at generating long and high-resolution rainfall time series, and it is based on the implemen-tation of a Neymann–Scott Rectangular Pulse (NSRP) model. STORAGE is characterized by two innovative aspects. First, its calibration (i.e., the parametric estimation, on the basis of available sample data, in order to better reproduce some rainfall features of interest) is carried out by using data series (annual maxima rainfall, annual and monthly cumulative rainfall, annual number of wet days) which are usually longer than observed high-resolution series (that are mainly adopted in literature for the calibration of other stochastic simulators but are usually very short or absent for many rain gauges). Second, the seasonality is modelled using series of goniometric functions. This approach makes STORAGE strongly parsimonious with respect to the use of monthly or seasonal sets for parameters. Applications for the rain gauge network in the Calabria region (southern Italy) are presented and discussed herein. The results show a good reproduction of the rainfall features which are mainly considered for usual hydrological purposes.