Evaluation of Spatial-Temporal Characteristics of Rainfall Variations over Thailand Inferred from Different Gridded Datasets

Abstract

The fidelity of gridded rainfall datasets is important for the characterization of rainfall features across the globe. This study investigates the climatology, interannual variability, and spatial-temporal variations of seasonal rainfall over Thailand during the 1970–2007 period using station data obtained from the Thai Meteorological Department (TMDstn). In addition, the performance of three gridded rainfall datasets, namely APHRODITE, CRU, and GPCC, in reproducing these seasonal rainfall features were intercompared and further validated with the results derived from the TMDstn. Results show that the gridded datasets can reproduce the spatial distribution of the TMDstn’s summer mean rainfall. However, large systematic underestimation is seen in APHRODITE, while GPCC shows better agreement with TMDstn as compared to others. In the winter, the spatial distribution of the seasonal mean of rainfall is well captured by all gridded data, especially in the upper part of Thailand, while they failed to capture high rainfall intensity in the south and the eastern parts of Thailand. Meanwhile, all the gridded datasets underestimated the interannual variability of summer and winter season rainfall. Using EOF analysis, we demonstrate that all the gridded datasets captured the first two dominant modes of summer rainfall, while they underestimated the explained variance of EOF-1. In the winter season, a good agreement is found between the first two modes of the TMDstn and the gridded datasets for both the spatial pattern and temporal variation. Overall, the GPCC data show relatively better performance in reproducing the spatial distribution of rainfall climatology and their year-to-year variation over Thailand. Furthermore, the performance of the gridded datasets over Thailand is largely dependent on the season and the complexity of the topography. However, this study indicates the existence of systematic bias in the gridded rainfall datasets when compared with TMDstn. Therefore, this indicates the need for users to pay attention to the reliability of gridded rainfall datasets when trying to identify possible mechanisms responsible for the interannual variability of seasonal rainfall over Thailand.