Articles | Volume 17, issue 23
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-8665-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-8665-2024
Methods for assessment of models
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09 Dec 2024
Methods for assessment of models | Highlight paper |  | 09 Dec 2024

Evaluating downscaled products with expected hydroclimatic co-variances

Seung H. Baek, Paul A. Ullrich, Bo Dong, and Jiwoo Lee

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Cited articles

Abatzoglou, J. T. and Brown, T. J.: A comparison of statistical downscaling methods suited for wildfire applications, Int. J. Climatol., 32, 772–780, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.2312, 2012. 
Baek, S. H.: Evaluating statistical downscaled products with expected hydroclimatic co-variances, Zenodo [code], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11194306, 2024. 
Baek, S. H., Smerdon, J. E., Seager, R., Williams, A. P., and Cook, B. I.: Pacific Ocean Forcing and Atmospheric Variability Are the Dominant Causes of Spatially Widespread Droughts in the Contiguous United States, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 124, 2507–2524, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD029219, 2019. 
Baek, S. H., Smerdon, J. E., Dobrin, G.-C., Naimark, J. G., Cook, E. R., Cook, B. I., Seager, R., Cane, M. A., and Scholz, S. R.: A quantitative hydroclimatic context for the European Great Famine of 1315–1317, Commun. Earth Environ., 1, 19, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-020-00016-3, 2020. 
Baek, S. H., Smerdon, J. E., Cook, B. I., and Williams, A. P.: U.S. Pacific Coastal Droughts Are Predominantly Driven by Internal Atmospheric Variability, J. Climate, 34, 1947–1962, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0365.1, 2021. 
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Executive editor
This paper addresses the conditions in which GCM and downscaled solutions diverge for targeted processes under historical and future climate conditions. Downscaling is a crucial part of making climate model outputs useable by the wider science and policy community. Understanding the properties and limitations of downscaling should hence be of interest far beyond the model development community.
Short summary
We evaluate downscaled products by examining locally relevant co-variances during precipitation events. Common statistical downscaling techniques preserve expected co-variances during convective precipitation (a stationary phenomenon). However, they dampen future intensification of frontal precipitation (a non-stationary phenomenon) captured in global climate models and dynamical downscaling. Our study quantifies a ramification of the stationarity assumption underlying statistical downscaling.
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