Identification

Title

An intercomparison of statistical downscaling methods used for water resource assessments in the United States

Abstract

Information relevant for most hydrologic applications cannot be obtained directly from the native-scale outputs of climate models. As a result the climate model output must be downscaled, often using statistical methods. The plethora of statistical downscaling methods requires end-users to make a selection. This work is intended to provide end-users with aid in making an informed selection. We assess four commonly used statistical downscaling methods: daily and monthly disaggregated-to-daily Bias Corrected Spatial Disaggregation (BCSDd, BCSDm), Asynchronous Regression (AR), and Bias Corrected Constructed Analog (BCCA) as applied to a continental-scale domain and a regional domain (BCCAr). These methods are applied to the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis, as a surrogate for a climate model, to downscale precipitation to a 12 km gridded observation data set. Skill is evaluated by comparing precipitation at daily, monthly, and annual temporal resolutions at individual grid cells and at aggregated scales. BCSDd and the BCCA methods overestimate wet day fraction, and underestimate extreme events. The AR method reproduces extreme events and wet day fraction well at the grid-cell scale, but over (under) estimates extreme events (wet day fraction) at aggregated scales. BCSDm reproduces extreme events and wet day fractions well at all space and time scales, but is limited to rescaling current weather patterns. In addition, we analyze the choice of calibration data set by looking at both a 12 km and a 6 km observational data set; the 6 km observed data set has more wet days and smaller extreme events than the 12 km product, the opposite of expected scaling.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7kp835t

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2014-09-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact