Evaluation of Gridded Precipitation Data Products for Hydrological Applications in Complex Topography

Abstract

Accurate spatial and temporal representation of precipitation is of utmost importance for hydrological applications. Uncertainties in available data sets increase with spatial resolution due to small-scale processes over complex terrain. As previous studies revealed high regional differences in the performance of gridded precipitation data sets, it is important to assess the related uncertainties at the catchment scale, where these data sets are typically applied, e.g., for hydrological modeling. In this study, the uncertainty of eight gridded precipitation data sets from various sources is investigated over an alpine catchment. A high resolution reference data set is constructed from station data and applied to quantify the contribution of spatial resolution to the overall uncertainty. While the results demonstrate that the data sets reasonably capture inter-annual variability, they show large seasonal differences. These increase for daily indicators assessing dry and wet spells as well as heavy precipitation. Although the higher resolution data sets, independent of their source, show a better agreement, the coarser data sets showed great potential especially in the representation of the overall climatology. To bridge the gaps in data scarce areas and to overcome the issues with observational data sets (e.g., undercatch and station density) it is important to include a variety of data sets and select an ensemble for a robust representation of catchment precipitation. However, the study highlights the importance of a thorough assessment and a careful selection of the data sets, which should be tailored to the desired application.