HDSC Glossary

ANNUAL EXCEEDANCE PROBABILITY (AEP) - The probability associated with exceeding a given amount in any given year once or more than once; the inverse of AEP provides a measure of the average time between years (and not events) in which a particular value is exceeded at least once; the term is associated with analysis of annual maximum series (see also AVERAGE RECCURENCE INTERVAL). 

ANNUAL MAXIMUM SERIES (AMS) - Time series of the largest precipitation amounts in a continuous 12-month period (calendar or water year) for a specified duration at a given station. 

ASCII GRID - Grid format with a 6-line header, which provides location and size of the grid and precedes the actual grid data. The grid is written as a series of rows, which contain one ASCII integer or floating point value per column in the grid. The first element of the grid corresponds to the upper-left corner of the grid. 

AVERAGE RECURRENCE INTERVAL (ARI; a.k.a. RETURN PERIOD, AVERAGE RETURN PERIOD) - Average time between cases of a particular precipitation magnitude for a specified duration and at a given location; the term is associated with the analysis of partial duration series. However, ARI is frequently calculated as the inverse of AEP for the annual maximum series; in this case it represents the average period between years in which a given precipitation magnitude is exceeded at least once. 

CASCADE, RESIDUAL ADD-BACK (CRAB) - The HDSC-developed spatial interpolation procedure for deriving grids of precipitation frequency estimates from grids of mean annual maxima and point precipitation frequency estimates for a given duration. 

CONSTRAINED OBSERVATION - A precipitation measurement or observation bound by clock hours and occurring in regular intervals. This observation requires conversion to an unconstrained value (see UNCONSTRAINED OBSERVATION) because maximum 60-minute or 24-hour amounts seldom fall within a single hourly or daily observation period. 

DATA YEARS - See RECORD LENGTH. 

DEPTH-DURATION-FREQUENCY (DDF) CURVE - Graphical depiction of precipitation frequency estimates in terms of depth, duration and frequency (ARI or AEP). 

DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION (CUMULATIVE DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION) - Mathematical description that completely describes frequency distribution of a random variable, here precipitation. Distribution functions commonly used to describe precipitation data include 3-parameter distributions such as Generalized Extreme Value (GEV), Generalized Normal, Generalized Pareto, Generalized Logistic and Pearson type III, the 4-parameter Kappa distribution, and the 5-parameter Wakeby distribution. 

FEDERAL GEOGRAPHIC DATA COMMITTEE (FGDC) COMPLIANT METADATA - A document that describes the content, quality, condition, and other characteristics of data and follows the guidelines set forth by the FGDC; metadata is "data about data." 

FREQUENCY - General term for specifying the average recurrence interval or annual exceedance probability associated with specific precipitation magnitude for a given duration. 

FREQUENCY ANALYSIS - Process of derivation of a mathematical model that represents the relationship between precipitation magnitudes and their frequencies. 

FREQUENCY ESTIMATE - Precipitation magnitude associated with specific average recurrence interval or annual exceedance probability for a given duration. 

HEAVY PRECIPITATION - Precipitation with an average recurrence interval roughly between 1 year and 1,000 years for a given duration. 

INTENSITY-DURATION-FREQUENCY (IDF) CURVE - Graphical depiction of precipitation frequency estimates in terms of intensity, duration and frequency. 

INTERNAL CONSISTENCY - Term used to describe the required behavior of the precipitation frequency estimates from one duration to the next or from one frequency to the next. For instance, it is required that the 100-year 3-hour precipitation frequency estimates be greater than (or at least equal to) corresponding 100-year 2-hour estimates. 

L-MOMENTS - L-moments are summary statistics for probability distributions and data samples. They are analogous to ordinary moments, providing measures of location, dispersion, skewness, kurtosis, and other aspects of the shape of probability distributions or data samples, but are computed from linear combinations of the ordered data values (hence the prefix L). 

MEAN ANNUAL PRECIPITATION (MAP) - The average precipitation for a year (usually calendar) based on the whole period of record or for a selected period (usually 30 year period such as 1971-2000). 

PARTIAL DURATION SERIES (PDS) - Time series that includes all precipitation amounts for a specified duration at a given station above a pre-defined threshold regardless of year; it can include more than one event in any particular year. 

PRECIPITATION FREQUENCY DATA SERVER (PFDS) - The on-line portal for all NOAA Atlas 14 deliverables, documentation, and information; https://hdsc.nws.noaa.gov/hdsc/pfds/. 

PARAMETER-ELEVATION REGRESSIONS ON INDEPENDENT SLOPES MODEL (PRISM) -Hybrid statistical-geographic approach to mapping climate data developed by Oregon State University's PRISM Climate Group. 

QUANTILE - Generic term to indicate the precipitation frequency estimate associated with either ARI or AEP. 

RECORD LENGTH - Number of years in which enough precipitation data existed to extract meaningful annual maxima in a station's period of record (or data years). 

UNCONSTRAINED OBSERVATION - A precipitation measurement or observation for a defined duration. However the observation is not made at a specific repeating time, rather the duration is a moveable window through time. 

WATER YEAR - Any 12-month period, usually selected to begin and end during a relatively dry season.