A 44-Year Daily Gridded Precipitation Dataset for Asia Based on a Dense Network of Rain Gauges

Abstract

A daily gridded precipitation dataset for 1961-2004 was created by collecting rain gauge observation data across Asia through the activities of the Asian Precipitation—Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards the Evaluation of Water Resources (APHRODITE) project. Our number of valid stations was between 5000 and 12,000, representing 2.3 to 4.5 times the data available through the Global Telecommunication System network, which were used for most daily grid precipitation products. APHRODITE’s daily gridded precipitation (APHRO_V0902) is the only long-term (1961 onward) continental-scale daily product that contains a dense network of daily rain gauge data for Asia including the Himalayas and mountainous areas in the Middle East. The product contributes to studies such as the evaluation of Asian water resources, diagnosis of climate change, statistical downscaling, and verification of numerical model simulation and high-resolution precipitation estimates using satellites. We released APHRO_V0902 datasets for Monsoon Asia, Russia and the Middle East (on 0.5° × 0.5° and 0.25° × 0.25° grids) at http://www.chikyu.ac.jp/precip/. Herein, we show the algorithm and input data of APHRO_V0902.