Abstract
Abstract. The availability of highly accessible and reliable monthly gridded data sets of global land-surface precipitation is a need that was already identified in the mid-1980s when there was a complete lack of globally homogeneous gauge-based precipitation analyses. Since 1989, the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) has built up its unique capacity to assemble, quality assure, and analyse rain gauge data gathered from all over the world. The resulting database has exceeded 200 yr in temporal coverage and has acquired data from more than 85 000 stations worldwide. Based on this database, this paper provides the reference publication for the four globally gridded monthly precipitation products of the GPCC, covering a 111-yr analysis period from 1901–present. As required for a reference publication, the content of the product portfolio, as well as the underlying methodologies to process and interpolate are detailed. Moreover, we provide information on the systematic and statistical errors associated with the data products. Finally, sample applications provide potential users of GPCC data products with suitable advice on capabilities and constraints of the gridded data sets. In doing so, the capabilities to access El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) sensitive precipitation regions and to perform trend analyses across the past 110 yr are demonstrated. The four gridded products, i.e. the Climatology (CLIM) V2011, the Full Data Reanalysis (FD) V6, the Monitoring Product (MP) V4, and the First Guess Product (FG), are publicly available on easily accessible latitude/longitude grids encoded in zipped clear text ASCII files for subsequent visualization and download through the GPCC download gate hosted on ftp://ftp.dwd.de/pub/data/gpcc/html/download_gate.html by the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), Offenbach, Germany. Depending on the product, four (0.25°, 0.5°, 1.0°, 2.5° for CLIM), three (0.5°, 1.0°, 2.5°, for FD), two (1.0°, 2.5° for MP) or one (1.0° for FG) resolution is provided, and for each product a DOI reference is provided allowing for public user access to the products. A preliminary description of the scope of a fifth product – the Homogenized Precipitation Analysis (HOMPRA) – is also provided. Its comprehensive description will be submitted later in an extra paper upon completion of this data product. DOIs of the gridded data sets examined are as follows: doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/CLIM_M_V2011_025, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/CLIM_M_V2011_050, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/CLIM_M_V2011_100, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/CLIM_M_V2011_250, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FD_M_V6_050, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FD_M_V6_100, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FD_M_V6_250, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/MP_M_V4_100, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/MP_M_V4_250, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FG_M_100.
Highlights
Precipitation is probably the most important of the essential climate variables (ECVs) identified for the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS; Table 1 in GCOS, 2010)
In order to obtain the best possible spatial data coverage at the earliest time as required by the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) and other users, the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) merges for its Monitoring Product the monthly totals from all three Global Telecommunication System (GTS) data sources CLIMAT, Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD)-synoptic data (SYNOP) and Climate Prediction Centre (CPC) (Fig. 3) after each of them has been loaded into GPCC’s relational database management system (RDBMS)
Each of the four data set products is optimized for a specific purpose, where either best stability and representativeness, (Climatology Version 2011), high accuracy (Full Data Reanalysis Version 6), high availability and reasonable timeliness (Monitoring Product Version 4), or high timeliness (First Guess Product) are the major requirements
Summary
Precipitation is probably the most important of the essential climate variables (ECVs) identified for the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS; Table 1 in GCOS, 2010). High-quality monthly precipitation data sets across a long-term period are key information for an improved understanding of the global water cycle This need was already identified in the late 1980s by the Commissions for Hydrology and Climatology consulting the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). In this GPCC reference paper, the underlying database and provenance is described thoroughly, followed by brief descriptions of the data quality control (QC) applied to the station data in Sect. We will focus on the description of the gridded GPCC products in terms of the specific methodologies applied for the gridding of the station data, the additional information available with regard to the uncertainty of the products, and a comparison of the three interpolation methods (arithmetic mean, modified SPHEREMAP – Willmott et al, 1985, and ordinary kriging – Rubel and Hantel, 2001) and their related sampling errors
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