Investigation of the fractal dimension of rainfall occurrence in a semi-arid Mediterranean climate

The scale invariance of rainfall series in the Tunis area, Tunisia (semi-arid Mediterranean climate) is studied in a mono-fractal framework by applying the box counting method to four series of observations, each about 2.5 years in length, based on a time resolution of 5 min. In addition, a single series of daily rainfall records for the period 18732009 was analysed. Three self-similar structures were identified: micro-scale (5 min to 2 d) with fractal dimension 0.44, meso-scale (2 d to one week) and synoptic-scale (one week to eight months) with fractal dimension 0.9. Interpretation of these findings suggests that only the micro-scale and transition to saturation are consistent, while the high fractal dimension relating to the synoptic scale might be affected by the tendency to saturation. A sensitivity analysis of the estimated fractal dimension was performed using daily rainfall data by varying the series length, as well as the intensity threshold for the detection of rain. Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Associate editor S. Grimaldi Citation Ghanmi, H., Bargaoui, Z., and Mallet, C., 2013. Investigation of the fractal dimension of rainfall occurrence in a semi-arid Mediterranean climate. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (3), 483497.