Data Release for The dependence of hydroclimate projections in snow-dominated regions of the western U.S. on the choice of statistically downscaled climate data

Metadata:

Identification Information:

Citation:
Citation Information:
Originator: Jay Alder
Originator: Steve Hostetler
Originator: U.S. Geological Survey
Publication Date: 12/01/2018
Title:
Data Release for The dependence of hydroclimate projections in snow-dominated regions of the western U.S. on the choice of statistically downscaled climate data
Geospatial Data Presentation Form: NetCDF
Online Linkage: https://doi.org/10.5066/P9O9EB1C
Description:
Abstract:
Climate change information simulated by global climate models is downscaled using statistical methods to translate spatially course regional projections to finer resolutions needed by researchers and managers to assess local climate impacts. Several statistical downscaling methods have been developed over the past fifteen years, resulting in multiple datasets derived by different methods. We apply a simple monthly water-balance model (MWBM) to demonstrate how the differences among these datasets result in disparate projections of snow loss and future changes in runoff. We apply the MWBM to six statistically downscaled datasets for 14 general circulation models (GCMs) from the Climate Model Intercomparison Program Phase 5 (CMIP5) for the RCP 8.5 emission scenario (1950 - 2099).

The statistically downscaled datasets are as follows:
BCCA: Bias Corrected Constructed Analogs (Reclamation, 2013)
BCSD-C: Bias Corrected Spatial Disaggregation (Reclamation, 2013)
BCSD-F: Bias Corrected Spatial Disaggregation (Thrasher et al., 2013)
LOCA: Localized Constructed Analogs (Pierce et al., 2014)
MACA-L: Multivariate Adaptive Constructed Analogs (Abatzoglou & Brown, 2012, bias corrected by Livneh et al., 2013)
MACA-M: Multivariate Adaptive Constructed Analogs (Abatzoglou & Brown, 2012, bias corrected by METDATA, Abatzoglou, 2013)

Users interested in the downscaled temperature and precipitation files are referred to the dataset home pages:
BCCA, BCSD-C: http://gdo-dcp.ucllnl.org/downscaled_cmip_projections/dcpInterface.html
BCSD-F: https://cds.nccs.nasa.gov/nex/
LOCA: http://loca.ucsd.edu/
MACA-L, MACA-M: http://maca.northwestknowledge.net

The GCMs are the following:
bcc-csm1-1, CanESM2, CNRM-CM5, CSIRO-Mk3-6-0, GFDL-ESM2G, GFDL-ESM2M, inmcm4, IPSL-CM5A-LR, IPSL-CM5A-MR, MIROC-ESM, MIROC-ESM-CHEM, MIROC5, MRI-CGCM3, NorESM1-M
Purpose:
The dataset contains snow and runoff projections simulated by the monthly water-balance model (MWBM) when driven by temperature and precipitation time series from six commonly used statistically downscaled datasets. Differences in hydroclimate projections highlight uncertainty stemming from both the GCMs and statistically downscaling methods.
Time Period of Content:
Time Period Information:
Range of Dates/Times:
Beginning Date: 01/01/1950
Ending Date: 12/31/2099
Currentness Reference:
publication date
Status:
Progress:
Complete
Maintenance and Update Frequency: None planned
Spatial Domain:
Description of Geographic Extent:
Contiguous United States
Bounding Coordinates:
West Bounding Coordinate: -125.969
East Bounding Coordinate: -66.0312
North Bounding Coordinate: 53.9688
South Bounding Coordinate: 23.4062
Keywords:
Theme:
Theme Keyword Thesaurus: None
Theme Keyword: BCSD
Theme Keyword: BCCA
Theme Keyword: LOCA
Theme Keyword: MACA
Theme Keyword: snow water equivalent
Theme:
Theme Keyword Thesaurus: USGS Thesaurus
Theme Keyword: runoff
Theme Keyword: hydrologic processes
Theme Keyword: snow and ice cover
Theme Keyword: effects of climate change
Theme:
Theme Keyword Thesaurus: Marine Realms Information Bank (MRIB) keywords
Theme Keyword: numerical modeling
Place:
Place Keyword Thesaurus: Common geographic areas
Place Keyword: United States
Place:
Place Keyword Thesaurus: None
Place Keyword: Contiguous United States
Access Constraints: None. Please see 'Distribution Info' for details.
Use Constraints:
None. Users are advised to read the data set's metadata thoroughly to understand appropriate use and data limitations.
Point of Contact:
Contact Information:
Contact Person Primary:
Contact Person: Jay Alder
Contact Organization: Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center / U.S. Geological Survey
Contact Position: Physical Scientist
Contact Address:
Address Type: mailing address
Address: 104 CEOAS Admin Building
City: Corvallis
State or Province: OR
Postal Code: 97331
Country: US
Contact Voice Telephone: 541-737-5629
Contact Electronic Mail Address: jalder@usgs.gov
Back to Top

Data Quality Information:

Attribute Accuracy:
Attribute Accuracy Report:
No formal attribute accuracy tests were conducted.
Logical Consistency Report:
No formal logical accuracy tests were conducted.
Completeness Report:
Data set is considered complete for the information presented, as described in the abstract. Users are advised to read the rest of the metadata record carefully for additional details.
Lineage:
Source Information:
Source Citation:
Citation Information:
Originator: Bureau of Reclamation
Publication Date: 05/07/2013
Title:
Downscaled CMIP3 and CMIP5 Climate Projections
Geospatial Data Presentation Form: NetCDF
Online Linkage: https://gdo-dcp.ucllnl.org/downscaled_cmip_projections/techmemo/downscaled_climate.pdf
Type of Source Media: NetCDF
Source Time Period of Content:
Time Period Information:
Range of Dates/Times:
Beginning Date: 01/01/1950
Ending Date: 12/31/2099
Source Currentness Reference:
publication date
Source Citation Abbreviation:
BCCA
Source Contribution:
Temperature and precipitation input fields
Source Information:
Source Citation:
Citation Information:
Originator: Bureau of Reclamation
Publication Date: 05/07/2013
Title:
Downscaled CMIP3 and CMIP5 Climate Projections
Geospatial Data Presentation Form: NetCDF
Online Linkage: https://gdo-dcp.ucllnl.org/downscaled_cmip_projections/techmemo/downscaled_climate.pdf
Type of Source Media: NetCDF
Source Time Period of Content:
Time Period Information:
Range of Dates/Times:
Beginning Date: 01/01/1950
Ending Date: 12/31/2099
Source Currentness Reference:
publication date
Source Citation Abbreviation:
BCSD-C
Source Contribution:
Temperature and precipitation input fields
Source Information:
Source Citation:
Citation Information:
Originator: Bridget Thrasher
Originator: Jun Xiong
Originator: Weile Wang
Originator: Forrest Melton
Originator: Andrew Michaelis
Originator: Ramakrishna Nemani
Publication Date: 09/10/2013
Title:
Downscaled Climate Projections Suitable for Resource Management
Geospatial Data Presentation Form: NetCDF
Series Information:
Series Name: Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union
Issue Identification: vol. 94, issue 37
Publication Information:
Publication Place: n/a
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Other Citation Details:
ppg. 321-323
Online Linkage: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2013EO370002
Type of Source Media: NetCDF
Source Time Period of Content:
Time Period Information:
Range of Dates/Times:
Beginning Date: 01/01/1950
Ending Date: 12/31/2099
Source Currentness Reference:
publication date
Source Citation Abbreviation:
BCSD-F
Source Contribution:
Temperature and precipitation input fields
Source Information:
Source Citation:
Citation Information:
Originator: David W. Pierce
Originator: Daniel R. Cayan
Originator: Bridget L. Thrasher
Publication Date: 12/2014
Title:
Statistical Downscaling Using Localized Constructed Analogs (LOCA)
Geospatial Data Presentation Form: NetCDF
Series Information:
Series Name: Journal of Hydrometeorology
Issue Identification: vol. 15, issue 6
Publication Information:
Publication Place: n/a
Publisher: American Meteorological Society
Other Citation Details:
ppg. 2558-2585
Online Linkage: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-14-0082.1
Type of Source Media: NetCDF
Source Time Period of Content:
Time Period Information:
Range of Dates/Times:
Beginning Date: 01/01/1950
Ending Date: 12/31/2099
Source Currentness Reference:
publication date
Source Citation Abbreviation:
LOCA
Source Contribution:
Temperature and precipitation input fields
Source Information:
Source Citation:
Citation Information:
Originator: John T. Abatzoglou
Originator: Timothy J. Brown
Publication Date: 03/17/2011
Title:
A comparison of statistical downscaling methods suited for wildfire applications
Geospatial Data Presentation Form: NetCDF
Series Information:
Series Name: International Journal of Climatology
Issue Identification: vol. 32, issue 5
Publication Information:
Publication Place: n/a
Publisher: Wiley
Other Citation Details:
Bias corrected by Livneh et al., 2013.
Online Linkage: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joc.2312
Type of Source Media: NetCDF
Source Time Period of Content:
Time Period Information:
Range of Dates/Times:
Beginning Date: 01/01/1950
Ending Date: 12/31/2099
Source Currentness Reference:
publication date
Source Citation Abbreviation:
MACA-L
Source Contribution:
Temperature and precipitation input fields.
Source Information:
Source Citation:
Citation Information:
Originator: John T. Abatzoglou
Originator: Timothy J. Brown
Publication Date: 03/17/2011
Title:
A comparison of statistical downscaling methods suited for wildfire applications
Geospatial Data Presentation Form: NetCDF
Series Information:
Series Name: International Journal of Climatology
Issue Identification: vol. 32, issue 5
Publication Information:
Publication Place: n/a
Publisher: Wiley
Other Citation Details:
Bias corrected by METDATA (Abatzoglou, 2013).
Online Linkage: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joc.2312
Type of Source Media: NetCDF
Source Time Period of Content:
Time Period Information:
Range of Dates/Times:
Beginning Date: 01/01/1950
Ending Date: 12/31/2099
Source Currentness Reference:
publication date
Source Citation Abbreviation:
MACA-M
Source Contribution:
Temperature and precipitation input fields.
Process Step:
Process Description:
The monthly water-balance model (MWBM) was driven by temperature and precipitation time series from six commonly used statistically downscaled datasets. We use the r1i1p1 realization from each of the 14 GCMs. The BCCA, MACA and LOCA datasets were developed to downscale daily data, which we aggregated to monthly averages and use as input to the hydrology model. In datasets that include minimum and maximum but not mean temperature, we derived a mean value by averaging the minimum and maximum.

A description of the MWBM and calibration used herein is found in:

Hostetler, S. W., & Alder, J. R. (2016). Implementation and evaluation of a monthly water balance model over the US on an 800 m grid. Water Resources Research, 52(12), 9600–9620. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016WR018665
Process Date: 11/01/2018
Process Step:
Process Description:
To aid in file compression, the original floating-point output was converted to scaled integers. Data fields must be divided by 10 to obtain the correct value.
Process Date: 11/01/2018
Back to Top

Entity and Attribute Information:

Overview Description:
Entity and Attribute Overview:
Simulated snow water equivalent (SWE) and runoff gridded time series for the six datasets are 14 GCMs are provided as a collection of NetCDF files. Both the “snow” and “runoff” variables have units of mm multiplied by 10. Data fields must be divided by 10 to obtain the correct value, which should be done automatically by most software that reads and visualizes NetCDF files. The grids have a missing_value of -999 to mask lakes, oceans, or grid cells without simulated snow and runoff fields. Longitude values range from 0 to 360 degrees.
Entity and Attribute Detail Citation:
Back to Top

Distribution Information:

Distributor:
Contact Information:
Contact Organization Primary:
Contact Organization: U.S. Geological Survey
Contact Person: GS ScienceBase
Contact Address:
Address Type: mailing address
Address: Denver Federal Center, Building 810, Mail Stop 302
City: Denver
State or Province: CO
Postal Code: 80225
Country: United States
Contact Voice Telephone: 1-888-275-8747
Contact Electronic Mail Address: sciencebase@usgs.gov
Distribution Liability:
Unless otherwise stated, all data, metadata and related materials are considered to satisfy the quality standards relative to the purpose for which the data were collected. Although these data and associated metadata have been reviewed for accuracy and completeness and approved for release by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the display or utility of the data on any other system or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty.
Standard Order Process:
Digital Form:
Digital Transfer Information:
Format Name: Digital Data
Digital Transfer Option:
Online Option:
Computer Contact Information:
Network Address:
Network Resource Name:https://doi.org/10.5066/P9O9EB1C
Fees: None
Back to Top

Metadata Reference Information:

Metadata Date: 11/19/2018
Metadata Contact:
Contact Information:
Contact Person Primary:
Contact Person: Jay Alder
Contact Organization: Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center / U.S. Geological Survey
Contact Position: Physical Scientist
Contact Address:
Address Type: mailing address
Address: 104 CEOAS Admin Building
City: Corvallis
State or Province: OR
Postal Code: 97331
Country: US
Contact Voice Telephone: 541-737-5629
Contact Electronic Mail Address: jalder@usgs.gov
Metadata Standard Name: FGDC Biological Data Profile of the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata
Metadata Standard Version: FGDC-STD-001.1-1999
Back to Top