1. Intercomparison of annual precipitation indices and extremes over global land areas from in situ, space-based and reanalysis products
- Author
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Steefan Contractor, Lisa V. Alexander, Margot Bador, Markus G. Donat, Phuong Nguyen, Rémy Roca, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, University of New South Wales [Sydney] (UNSW)-Australian Research Council [Canberra] (ARC), Laboratoire d'études en Géophysique et océanographie spatiales (LEGOS), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Climate Change Research Centre [Sydney] (CCRC), University of New South Wales [Sydney] (UNSW), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Météo France-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), and Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France -Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France -Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
In situ ,reanalyses ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,'ETCCDI' precipitation indices ,Informàtica::Sistemes d'informació [Àrees temàtiques de la UPC] ,satellite ,guage-based ,Precipitacions (Meteorologia) -- Mesurament ,precipitation ,010501 environmental sciences ,01 natural sciences ,intercomparison ,Latitude ,Bases de dades ,Databases ,Simulació per ordinador ,Range (statistics) ,Precipitation ,Time series ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,General Environmental Science ,Climatology ,Grids database ,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment ,global observations ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,FROGS ,Precipitation (Meteorology) -- Measurement ,Climatologia ,[SDE]Environmental Sciences ,Environmental science ,Satellite ,Precipitation extremes ,Longitude ,Scale (map) ,Frequent rainfall observations ,Intercomparison of precipitation extremes - Abstract
A range of in situ, satellite and reanalysis products on a common daily 1° × 1° latitude/longitude grid were extracted from the Frequent Rainfall Observations on Grids database to help facilitate intercomparison and analysis of precipitation extremes on a global scale. 22 products met the criteria for this analysis, namely that daily data were available over global land areas from 50°S to 50°N since at least 2001. From these daily gridded data, 10 annual indices that represent aspects of extreme precipitation frequency, duration and intensity were calculated. Results were analysed for individual products and also for four cluster types: (i) in situ, (ii) corrected satellite, (iii) uncorrected satellite and (iv) reanalyses. Climatologies based on a common 13-year period (2001–2013) showed substantial differences between some products. Timeseries (which ranged from 13 years to 67 years) also highlighted some substantial differences between products. A coefficient of variation showed that the in situ products were most similar to each other while reanalysis products had the largest variations. Reanalyses however agreed better with in situ observations over extra-tropical land areas compared to the satellite clusters, although reanalysis products tended to fall into 'wet' and 'dry' camps overall. Some indices were more robust than others across products with daily precipitation intensity showing the least variation between products and days above 20 mm showing the largest variation. In general, the results of this study show that global space-based precipitation products show the potential for climate scale analyses of extremes. While we recommend caution for all products dependent on their intended application, this particularly applies to reanalyses which show the most divergence across results. LVA, MB and PLN are supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) grants DP160103439 and CE170100023. MGD was supported by the Spanish Ministry for the Economy, Industry and Competitiveness Ramón y Cajal 2017 grant reference RYC-2017-22964. Indices were calculated using the climpactv2 software (https://climpact-sci.org/get-started) and all analyses and graphics were produced using the NCAR Command Language (NCL 2013).
- Published
- 2020
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