Elevation correction of ERA-Interim temperature data in complex terrain

Gao, Lu; Bernhardt, Matthias; Schulz, Karsten

doi:10.5194/hess-16-4661-2012

Cited by 113 publications

(169 citation statements)

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“…Modeled temperature is corrected with altitude according to the standard lapse rate (−6.5 K/km). Although more complex methods have shown improvements in coarser models (Gao et al 2012), comparison of different techniques at high resolution suggests that further correction is not needed .…”

Section: Observational Data and Model Assessment Metricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal to yearly assessment of temperature and precipitation trends in the North Western Mediterranean Basin by dynamical downscaling of climate scenarios at high resolution (1971–2050)

et al. 2013

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The complex topography and high climatic variability of the North Western Mediterranean Basin (NWMB) require a detailed assessment of climate change projections at high resolution. ECHAM5/MPIOM global climate projections for mid-21st century and three different emission scenarios are downscaled at 10 km resolution over the NWMB, using the WRF-ARW regional model. High resolution improves the spatial distribution of temperature and precipitation climatologies, with Pearson's correlation against observation being higher for WRF-ARW (0.98 for temperature and 0.81 for precipitation) when compared to the ERA40 reanalysis (0.69 and 0.53, respectively). However, downscaled results slightly underestimate mean temperature (≈1.3 K) and overestimate the precipitation field (≈400 mm/year). Temperature is expected to raise in the NWMB in all considered scenarios (up to 1.4 K for the annual mean), and particularly during summertime and at high altitude areas. Annual mean precipitation is likely to decrease (around −5 % to −13 % for the most extreme scenarios). The climate signal for seasonal precipitation is not so clear, as it is highly influenced by the driving GCM simulation. All scenarios suggest statistically significant decreases of precipitation for mountain ranges in winter and autumn. High resolution simulations of regional climate are potentially useful to decision makers. Nevertheless, uncertainties related to seasonal precipitation projections still persist and have to be addressed.

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Section: Observational Data and Model Assessment Metricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal to yearly assessment of temperature and precipitation trends in the North Western Mediterranean Basin by dynamical downscaling of climate scenarios at high resolution (1971–2050)

et al. 2013

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“…Previous studies have shown that the elevation difference between the reanalysis grid point and the corresponding 20 meteorological station leads to a large systematic bias (Gao et al, 2012(Gao et al, , 2014a(Gao et al, , 2016. Thus, the elevation correction scheme based on a lapse rate, which explains the empirical relationship between air temperature and altitude, can reduce this bias significantly.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…series is the prerequisite for accurate climate change assessment especially on a regional scale (Gao et al, 2012;Pepin and Seidel, 2005;Minder et al, 2010;Maurer et al, 2002;Mooney et al, 2011). However, as the most common sources for air temperature time series, observational networks suffer from the low-station density in complex terrains, in particular at high mountains (Gao et al, 2014a).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, due to the heterogeneity over the land surface, many hydrological and climatic impact models go for applications on high resolutions, which tend to run on the scale of 0.1-1 km (Bernhardt and Schulz, 2010;Gao et al, 2012;Maraun et al, 2010). To this end, downscaling and correcting reanalysis data is necessary (Gao et al, 2012(Gao et al, , 2014b(Gao et al, , 2016.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…To this end, downscaling and correcting reanalysis data is necessary (Gao et al, 2012(Gao et al, , 2014b(Gao et al, , 2016.…”

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confidence: 99%

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A high-resolution air temperature data set for the Chinese Tianshan Mountains in 1979–2016

Gao

Wei

Wang

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Abstract. The Chinese Tianshan Mountains has a complex ecological environment system. It not only has a large number of desert oases, but also gave birth to a large number of glaciers. The arid climate and the shortage of water resources are the important factors to restrict the socio-economic development in this area. This study presents a unique high-resolution (1 km, 6-hourly) air temperature data set for the Chinese Tianshan Mountains (41.1814-45.9945 °N, 77.3484-96.9989 °E) from 20 1979 to 2016 based on a robust statistical downscaling framework. The data set was validated by 24 meteorological stations at daily scale. Compared with original ERA-Interim temperature, the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient increased from 0.90 to 0.94 over all test sites. Around 24% of root-mean-square error was reduced from 3.75 to 2.85 °C. A skill score based on the probability density function, which was used to validate the reliability of the new data set for capturing the distributions, enhanced from 0.86 to 0.91 for all test sites. We conclude that the new high-resolution data set is reliable for 25 climate change investigation over the Chinese Tianshan Mountains. This data set would be helpful for the potential users for better local climate monitoring, modelling and environmental studies in the Chinese Tianshan Mountains. The data set presented in this article is published in Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) at doi: 10.1594/PANGAEA.887700. The data set includes 288 nc files and one user guidance in txt file.

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Unraveling the Hydrology of the Glacierized Kaidu Basin by Integrating Multisource Data in the Tianshan Mountains, Northwestern China

Shen

Fink

Kralisch

et al. 2018

Water Resources Research

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Understanding the water balance, especially as it relates to the distribution of runoff components, is crucial for water resource management and coping with the impacts of climate change. However, hydrological processes are poorly known in mountainous regions due to data scarcity and the complex dynamics of snow and glaciers. This study aims to provide a quantitative comparison of gridded precipitation products in the Tianshan Mountains, located in Central Asia and in order to further understand the mountain hydrology and distribution of runoff components in the glacierized Kaidu Basin. We found that gridded precipitation products are affected by inconsistent biases based on a spatiotemporal comparison with the nearest weather stations and should be evaluated with caution before using them as boundary conditions in hydrological modeling. Although uncertainties remain in this data‐scarce basin, driven by field survey data and bias‐corrected gridded data sets (ERA‐Interim and APHRODITE), the water balance and distribution of runoff components can be plausibly quantified based on the distributed hydrological model (J2000). We further examined parameter sensitivity and uncertainty with respect to both simulated streamflow and different runoff components based on an ensemble of simulations. This study demonstrated the possibility of integrating gridded products in hydrological modeling. The methodology used can be important for model applications and design in other data‐scarce mountainous regions. The model‐based simulation quantified the water balance and how the water resources are partitioned throughout the year in Tianshan Mountain basins, although the uncertainties present in this study result in important limitations.

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Elevation correction of ERA-Interim temperature data in complex terrain

Cited by 113 publications

References 40 publications

Seasonal to yearly assessment of temperature and precipitation trends in the North Western Mediterranean Basin by dynamical downscaling of climate scenarios at high resolution (1971–2050)

Seasonal to yearly assessment of temperature and precipitation trends in the North Western Mediterranean Basin by dynamical downscaling of climate scenarios at high resolution (1971–2050)

A high-resolution air temperature data set for the Chinese Tianshan Mountains in 1979–2016

Unraveling the Hydrology of the Glacierized Kaidu Basin by Integrating Multisource Data in the Tianshan Mountains, Northwestern China

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