Spectral Analysis of Time Series for Annual Precipitations in Iran

Precipitation is one of the most essential and variable climate components whose understanding has long been a concern for climatologists. The main objective of the current paper is to investigate and analyze the precipitation cycles in Iran. In order to realize this objective, the annual precipitation data of isometric station of Iran were extracted. These data have been collected by the country’s meteorological organization since the establishment of the station until 2008 which adds up to more than 40 years of statistics. Then, in order to investigate and analyze the precipitation cycles, spectral analysis (co-structural analysis) was utilized. Regarding the calculations, the programming utilities of Matlab were used and the Surfer software application was exploited for drawing operations. The results obtained from analyzing the cycles show that there are significant 2 to 3 year cycles, 3 to 5-year cycles, 2 to 6 year cycles and sometimes 11 or more- year cycles governing Iran’s precipitation patterns. Hence, in east and southeast of Iran, 3 to 5-year cycles are prevailing and in west and northwest 2 to 3-year cycles are dominant and finally in north east 2 to 6-year cycles are customary. The most numerous and the most variable cycles happen in south and south east, mainly due to the mountainous regions of Zagros as well as the proximity to Persian Gulf. The north western regions, much like the southwestern regions, indicate variable cycles due to the mammoth mountains of Sabalan and Sahand. Moreover, the presence of those cycles which have a return period equal to the statistical period has been seen in various parts of Iran, which indicates a precipitation trend in this country.