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Uncertainties in records of annual mean discharge in Maine

Water-Resources Investigations Report 83-4025
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https://doi.org/10.3133/wri834025

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Abstract

This report documents the results of rating analyses of flow during periods of ice-cover at 33 stations on selected rivers in Maine. Results were obtained through linear multiple regression. It also presents functions relating uncertainties in records to the number of discharge measurements made at these and 21 other stations. The application is unusual in that it includes analysis of the uncertainty of discharge as affected by backwater from ice. Total uncertainty consists of errors incurred during measurement and during data processing. An average of 46.8 percent of the total variance for the 21 stations not affected by backwater was due to measurement variance, and 53.2 percent was due to process variance. Data from the remaining 33 stations were divided into summer (open-water) periods and the winter (backwater) periods. An average of 49.3 percent of the total variance for the summer-period stations was due to measurements variance; 50.7 percent was due to process variance. An average of 25.2 percent of the total variance for the winter-period stations was due to measurement variance; 74.8 percent was due to process variance. Results of the seasonal division of average variance suggest that the process and measurement variances are essentially equal during open-water periods and that process variance is considerably greater than the measurement variance during backwater periods. The errors in winter discharge records significantly increased average uncertainty in the records of annual mean discharge. (USGS)
Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Uncertainties in records of annual mean discharge in Maine
Series title Water-Resources Investigations Report
Series number 83-4025
DOI 10.3133/wri834025
Edition -
Year Published 1983
Language ENGLISH
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey,
Description iv, 108 p. :ill., map ;28 cm.
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