A description of the global land-surface precipitation data products of the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre with sample applications including centennial (trend) analysis from 1901–present

摘要

The availability of highly accessible and reliable monthly gridded data setsof global land-surface precipitation is a need that was already identifiedin the mid-1980s when there was a complete lack of globally homogeneous gauge-basedprecipitation analyses. Since 1989, the Global PrecipitationClimatology Centre (GPCC) has built up its unique capacity to assemble,quality assure, and analyse rain gauge data gathered from all over theworld. The resulting database has exceeded 200 yr in temporal coverage andhas acquired data from more than 85 000 stations worldwide. Based on thisdatabase, this paper provides the reference publication for the fourglobally gridded monthly precipitation products of the GPCC, covering a111-yr analysis period from 1901–present. As required for a referencepublication, the content of the product portfolio, as well as the underlyingmethodologies to process and interpolate are detailed. Moreover, we provideinformation on the systematic and statistical errors associated with thedata products. Finally, sample applications provide potential users of GPCCdata products with suitable advice on capabilities and constraints of thegridded data sets. In doing so, the capabilities to access El Ni?o–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and North Atlantic Oscillation(NAO) sensitive precipitation regions and to perform trend analyses across thepast 110 yr are demonstrated. The four gridded products, i.e. theClimatology (CLIM) V2011, the Full Data Reanalysis (FD) V6, the MonitoringProduct (MP) V4, and the First Guess Product (FG), are publicly available oneasily accessible latitude/longitude grids encoded in zipped clear text ASCIIfiles for subsequent visualization and download through the GPCC downloadgate hosted on href="ftp://ftp.dwd.de/pub/data/gpcc/html/download_gate.html"target="_blank">ftp://ftp.dwd.de/pub/data/gpcc/html/download_gate.htmlbythe Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), Offenbach, Germany. Depending on theproduct, 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) orone (1.0° for FG) resolution is provided, and for each product aDOI reference is provided allowing for public user access to the products. Apreliminary description of the scope of a fifth product – the HomogenizedPrecipitation Analysis (HOMPRA) – is also provided. Its comprehensivedescription will be submitted later in an extra paper upon completion ofthis data product. DOIs of the gridded data sets examined are as follows:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5676/DWD_GPCC/CLIM_M_V2011_025"target="_blank">doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/CLIM_M_V2011_025,href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5676/DWD_GPCC/CLIM_M_V2011_050"target="_blank">doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/CLIM_M_V2011_050,href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5676/DWD_GPCC/CLIM_M_V2011_100"target="_blank">doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/CLIM_M_V2011_100,href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5676/DWD_GPCC/CLIM_M_V2011_250"target="_blank">doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/CLIM_M_V2011_250,href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FD_M_V6_050"target="_blank">doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FD_M_V6_050,href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FD_M_V6_100"target="_blank">doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FD_M_V6_100,href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FD_M_V6_250"target="_blank">doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FD_M_V6_250,href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5676/DWD_GPCC/MP_M_V4_100"target="_blank">doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/MP_M_V4_100,href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5676/DWD_GPCC/MP_M_V4_250"target="_blank">doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/MP_M_V4_250,href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FG_M_100"target="_blank">doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FG_M_100.