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Validation of China-wide interpolated daily climate variables from 1960 to 2011

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Abstract

Temporally and spatially continuous meteorological variables are increasingly in demand to support many different types of applications related to climate studies. Using measurements from 600 climate stations, a thin-plate spline method was applied to generate daily gridded climate datasets for mean air temperature, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, relative humidity, sunshine duration, wind speed, atmospheric pressure, and precipitation over China for the period 1961–2011. A comprehensive evaluation of interpolated climate was conducted at 150 independent validation sites. The results showed superior performance for most of the estimated variables. Except for wind speed, determination coefficients (R 2) varied from 0.65 to 0.90, and interpolations showed high consistency with observations. Most of the estimated climate variables showed relatively consistent accuracy among all seasons according to the root mean square error, R 2, and relative predictive error. The interpolated data correctly predicted the occurrence of daily precipitation at validation sites with an accuracy of 83 %. Moreover, the interpolation data successfully explained the interannual variability trend for the eight meteorological variables at most validation sites. Consistent interannual variability trends were observed at 66–95 % of the sites for the eight meteorological variables. Accuracy in distinguishing extreme weather events differed substantially among the meteorological variables. The interpolated data identified extreme events for the three temperature variables, relative humidity, and sunshine duration with an accuracy ranging from 63 to 77 %. However, for wind speed, air pressure, and precipitation, the interpolation model correctly identified only 41, 48, and 58 % of extreme events, respectively. The validation indicates that the interpolations can be applied with high confidence for the three temperatures variables, as well as relative humidity and sunshine duration based on the performance of these variables in estimating daily variations, interannual variability, and extreme events. Although longitude, latitude, and elevation data are included in the model, additional information, such as topography and cloud cover, should be integrated into the interpolation algorithm to improve performance in estimating wind speed, atmospheric pressure, and precipitation.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Research Program of China (2012CB955501, 2010CB530300, 2012AA12A407), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41201078), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-12-0060), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Wenping Yuan, Wenfang Xu, Yang Chen, Xiaoxu Wu & Yang Fu

  2. College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Bing Xu, Zhuoqi Chen & Jiangzhou Xia

Authors
  1. Wenping Yuan
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  2. Bing Xu
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  3. Zhuoqi Chen
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  4. Jiangzhou Xia
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  5. Wenfang Xu
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  6. Yang Chen
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  7. Xiaoxu Wu
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  8. Yang Fu
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Correspondence to Wenping Yuan or Bing Xu.

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Yuan, W., Xu, B., Chen, Z. et al. Validation of China-wide interpolated daily climate variables from 1960 to 2011. Theor Appl Climatol 119, 689–700 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-014-1140-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-014-1140-0

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