An analysis of rainfall based on entropy theory

The principle of maximum entropy can provide consistent basis for analyzing rainfall and for geophysical processes in general. The daily rainfall data was assessed using the Shannon entropy for a 10-years period from 189 stations in the northeastern region of Brazil. Mean values of marginal entropy were computed for all observation stations and isoentropy maps were then constructed for delineating annual and seasonal characteristics of rainfall. The Mann-Kendall test was used to evaluate the long-term trend in marginal entropy for two sample stations. The marginal entropy values of rainfall were higher for locations and periods with highest amount of rainfall. The results also showed that the marginal entropy decreased exponentially with increasing coefficient of variation. The Shannon theory produced spatial patterns which led to a better understanding of rainfall characteristics throughout the northeastern region of Brazil. Trend analysis indicated that most time series did not have any significant trends.