Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2022-163
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2022-163
Submitted as: model description paper
 | 
18 Jul 2022
Submitted as: model description paper |  | 18 Jul 2022
Status: this preprint is currently under review for the journal GMD.

Deep learning for stochastic precipitation generation – Deep SPG v1.0

Leroy Bird, Matthew Walker, Greg Bodeker, Isaac Campbell, Guangzhong Liu, Swapna Josmi Sam, Jared Lewis, and Suzanne Rosier

Abstract. We present a deep neural network based single site stochastic precipitation generator (SPG), capable of producing realistic time series of daily and hourly precipitation. The neural network outputs a wet day probability and precipitation distributions in the form of a mixture model. The SPG was tested in four different locations in New Zealand, and we found it accurately reproduced the precipitation depth, the autocorrelations seen in the original data, the observed dry-spell lengths and the seasonality in precipitation. We present two versions of the hourly and daily SPGs: (i) a stationary version of the SPG that assumes that the statistics of the precipitation are time independent (ii) a non-stationary version that captures the secular drift in precipitation statistics resulting from climate change. The latter was developed to be applicable to climate change impact studies, especially, studies reliant on SPG projections of future precipitation. We highlight many of the pitfalls associated with the training of a non-stationary SPG on observations alone, and offer an alternative method that replicates the secular drift in precipitation seen in a large-ensemble regional climate model. The SPG runs several orders of magnitude faster than a typical regional climate model, and permits the generation of very large ensembles of realistic precipitation time series under many climate change scenarios, these ensembles will also contain many extreme events not seen in the historical record.

Leroy Bird et al.

Status: final response (author comments only)

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on gmd-2022-163', Anonymous Referee #1, 20 Sep 2022
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Leroy Bird, 03 Mar 2023
  • RC2: 'Comment on gmd-2022-163', Anonymous Referee #2, 06 Jan 2023
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Leroy Bird, 03 Mar 2023

Leroy Bird et al.

Model code and software

SPG code Leroy Bird, Matthew Walker https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6801733

Leroy Bird et al.

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Short summary
Deriving the statistics of expected future changes in extreme precipitation is challenged by these events being rare. Regional climate models (RCMs) are computationally prohibitive for generating ensembles capable of capturing large numbers of extreme precipitation events with statistical robustness. Stochastic precipitation generators (SPGs) provide an alternative to RCMs. This paper describes a novel single-site SPG that learns the statistics of precipitation using a machine learning approach.