Journal of Spatial Analysis

Climatic extremes are the special status (high or low) of climatic elements. In spite of the unique definition, there are a lot of thresholds which have been illustrated for extremes. For example, Bonneted (2006) has defined the climatic extremes as intensive and abnormal events that include the lowest and highest values in a time series. Becker et al. (2007) have referred to the extremes of climate as events in every given point that exceeds a special threshold in that place. High extremes and the upper tail of precipitation distribution of frequency have attracted a lot of attention of experts. The thresholds of extremes have been chosen based on geographic situations. The Joint World Meteorological Organization Commission (CCL) for Climatology on Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) Expert Team on Climatic Change Detection, Monitoring and Indices (ETCCDMI) have been established in 1998 in order to study and determine the indices of climatic extremes. They have introduced quintile indices. Due to consequences of extreme precipitation characters e.g. frequency, duration and intensity, the precipitation extremes have been in the center of attentions of many branches of science. Some experts call these events as social challenges that can determine economic sustainable development.  Extremes analyses are based on investigating the tails of statistical distribution of daily observations, because the longest time scale couldn’t show what it should have shown for extremes. Heavy precipitation for each day is defined as precipitation which is more than normal precipitation of that day in every given place. For this amount of precipitation absolute and relative thresholds have been defined. In present research, heavy precipitation is defined based on relative index and percentile parameter. By using 90th percentile, some characters of tempo-special distribution of extreme precipitation in Northwest of Iran are analyzed based on 729 stations. Northwest of Iran includes four province East and west Azerbaijan, Ardabil and Zanjan. This part of country has 126544.4 and occupied 7.2% of the entire country mainland. Geographic location of Northwest of Iran is located between the following coordinates:    The averages of sea level pressure (SLP) and 500 hp level patterns have been examined. Therefore, two data groups, station based and atmospheric based, have been used. Station based data include precipitation measurements during 1968-2007 synoptic , climatology and rain gauge stations related to Islamic Republic of Iran Meteorology Organization (IRIMO), rain gauge stations of Ministry of Power. Kriging Method is used as optimum interpolation method in order to provide maps of 14975 days. The pixel size of interpolation is chosen with 33× 33 kilometers dimension (approximately 116 pixel). Thus, data set of northwest precipitation with 14975 × 116 dimension and S-mode have been arranged. Atmospheric data include SLP and 500 hp data have been derived from NCEP/NCAR. The area experiencing heavy precipitation from 10-20 to 60-70 percent have been investigated. The map average and precipitation and precipitation center for all of these cases have been estimated. Some characters, for instance tempo-spatial presentation of heavy precipitation has determined by using Geostatistics Methods. A 14975  116 pixel data network was defined. According to 6 categories of extreme precipitation have been recognized. These categories are based on the extent of the area under extreme precipitation. It has been discovered 6 categories 10-20 percent to 60-70 percent of space under investigation. With the average increase of extreme precipitation amounts, the central mean of precipitation has centralized and the isohyets have become irregular. The small change in central mean of precipitation, a serious change had happened in precipitation distribution.   Mean of SLP pattern showed Siberian high pressure system that extended from east to west and indicated positives anomalies. low pressure system in the Red sea which is extended to Europe region and its extension to eastern of Mediterranean sea, south and north of Saudi Arabia as well as its extension to northwest and sometimes the whole west parts of Iran, formed an area with negative anomalies. The low pressure system which was close to European high, formed extreme pressure gradients. In the 500 hp level, the northwest of Iran is in front of the trough which is located in the east of Mediterranean Sea. As the depth of the trough increased, the area where experiencing heavy precipitation increased and the axis of the trough changed from vertical into horizontal shape. The occurrence of the trough formed negative anomalies in the area. In all cases, there are two ridges immediately in west and east of the trough  of the Mediterranean Sea. The occurrence of the western ridge caused cold air mass flowing in the trough where the Mediterranean’s warmer air mass exists and made the front’s formation possible. As the eastern ridge moved eastward, the area where experiencing heavy precipitation increased.