Elsevier

Journal of Hydrology

Volume 190, Issues 3–4, 15 March 1997, Pages 214-251
Journal of Hydrology

Generating surfaces of daily meteorological variables over large regions of complex terrain

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1694(96)03128-9Get rights and content

Abstract

A method for generating daily surfaces of temperature, precipitation, humidity, and radiation over large regions of complex terrain is presented. Required inputs include digital elevation data and observations of maximum temperature, minimum temperature and precipitation from ground-based meteorological stations. Our method is based on the spatial convolution of a truncated Gaussian weighting filter with the set of station locations. Sensitivity to the typical heterogeneous distribution of stations in complex terrain is accomplished with an iterative station density algorithm. Spatially and temporally explicit empirical analyses of the relationships of temperature and precipitation to elevation were performed, and the characteristic spatial and temporal scales of these relationships were explored. A daily precipitation occurrence algorithm is introduced, as a precursor to the prediction of daily precipitation amount. Surfaces of humidity (vapor pressure deficit) are generated as a function of the predicted daily minimum temperature and the predicted daily average daylight temperature. Daily surfaces of incident solar radiation are generated as a function of Sun-slope geometry and interpolated diurnal temperature range. The application of these methods is demonstrated over an area of approximately 400 000 detailed illustration of the parameterization process. A cross-validation analysis was performed, comparing predicted and observed daily and annual average values. Mean absolute errors (MAE) for predicted annual average maximum and minimum temperature were 0.7°C and 1.2°C, with biases of +0.1°C and −0.1°C, respectively. MAE for predicted annual total precipitation was 13.4 cm, or, expressed as a percentage of the observed annual totals, 19.3%. The success rate for predictions of daily precipitation occurrence was 83.3%. Particular attention was given to the predicted and observed relationships between precipitation frequency and intensity, and they were shown to be similar. We tested the sensitivity of these methods to prediction grid-point spacing, and found that areal averages were unchanged for grids ranging in spacing from 500 m to 32 km. We tested the dependence of the results on timestep, and found that the temperature prediction algorithms scale perfectly in this respect. Temporal scaling of precipitation predictions was complicated by the daily occurrence predictions, but very nearly the same predictions were obtained at daily and annual timesteps.

References (39)

  • S.W. Running et al.

    A general model of forest ecosystem processes for regional applications. I. Hydrologic balance, canopy gas exchange, and primary production processes

    Ecol. Modelling

    (1988)
  • B. Seguin et al.

    Surface temperature and evapotranspiration: application of local scale methods to regional scales using satellite data

    Remote Sens. Environ.

    (1994)
  • W.J. Shuttleworth

    Macrohydrology—the new challenge for process hydrology

    J. Hydrol.

    (1988)
  • T.W.R. Wallis et al.

    An assessment of the weather generator (WXGEN) used in the erosion/productivity impact calculator (EPIC)

    Agric. For. Meteorol.

    (1995)
  • J.D. Creutin et al.

    Objective analyses and mapping techniques for rainfall fields: an objective comparison

    Water Resour. Res.

    (1982)
  • C. Daly et al.

    A statistical-topographic model for mapping climatological precipitation over mountainous terrain

    J. Appl. Meteorol.

    (1994)
  • A.T. DeGaetano et al.

    A method to estimate missing daily maximum and minimum temperature observations

    J. Appl. Meteorol.

    (1995)
  • J. Dolph et al.

    Characterizing the distribution of observed precipitation and runoff over the continental United States

    Climatic Change

    (1992)
  • P.S. Eagleson

    The emergence of global-scale hydrology

    Water Resour. Res.

    (1986)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text