Intercomparison of Multiple Hydroclimatic Datasets across the Lower Nelson River Basin, Manitoba, Canada

Figures & data

Fig. 1 Location of (a) the Nelson River basin (NRB), Churchill River basin (CRB), and Lower Nelson River basin (LNRB). (b) Major rivers within the LNRB are labelled; black triangles show the selected ECCC stations for this study; red diamonds denote current generating stations; the yellow circle shows a generating station under construction by Manitoba Hydro; the green box represents the Notigi Control Structure; and the red star indicates the Churchill River diversion. (c) Domain elevation distribution and selected sub-watersheds (black line).

Table 1. Main characteristics of the datasets used in this study.

Dataset	Description (Reference(s))	Temporal and Spatial Resolution	Geographical Coverage
ECCC	The Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorological stations (Fig. 1a): Norway House A (506B047), Flin Flon A (5050960), Gillam A (5061001), Thompson A (5062922)	Daily (1981–2010), point data	LNRB, land only
IDW	Inverse distance weighted interpolated observations from 14 ECCC meteorological stations (Table S1 and Fig. S1) (Gemmer, Becker, & Jiang, 2004; Shepard, 1968)	Daily (1981–2010), 0.10°	LNRB, land only
ANUSPLIN	The Australian National University spline interpolation (Hopkinson et al., 2011; NRCan, 2014)	Daily (1950–2011), 0.10°	Canada, land only
NARR	North American Regional Reanalysis (Mesinger et al., 2006)	3-hourly and daily (1979 to near present), 0.30°	North America, land and ocean
ERA-Interim	European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts interim reanalysis (Dee et al., 2011)	3-, 6-hourly and daily (1979 to near present), 0.125°	Global, land and ocean
WFDEI	European Union Water and Global Change (WATCH) Forcing Data ERA-Interim (Weedon et al., 2014)	3-, 6-hourly and daily (1979 to near present), 0.50°	Global, land and ocean
HydroGFD	Hydrological Global Forcing Data (Berg et al., 2018)	3-, 6-hourly and daily (1979 to near present), 0.50°	Global, land only
ENSEMBLE	Average of above-mentioned six gridded datasets	Daily (1981–2010), 0.10°	LNRB

Fig. 2 Area-averaged annual (a) total precipitation and (b) mean air temperature over the LNRB for the ANUSPLIN, NARR, ERA-Interim, WFDEI, and HydroGFD datasets compared with four ECCC stations average values across the basin, 1981–2010.

Table 2. Seasonal and annual precipitation and mean air temperature statistics for the domain-averaged ANUSPLIN, NARR, ERA-Interim, WFDEI, HydroGFD, and ENSEMBLE datasets with four ECCC stations average values across the LNRB, 1981–2010.

Precipitation (1981–2010)
Errors	Datasets	Winter	Spring	Summer	Autumn	Annual
RMSE (mm)	ANUSPLIN	6.0	14.6	28.1	15.3	47.2
	NARR	12.6	21.6	34.1	17.1	43.5
	ERA-Interim	8.6	14.5	36.6	17.8	53.8
	WFDEI	21.8	19.1	19.0	24.7	71.8
	HydroGFD	9.7	9.8	15.9	14.0	25.4
	ENSEMBLE	6.9	6.3	13.3	11.0	21.2
PBIAS (%)	ANUSPLIN	3.9	−12.8	−10.6	−6.4	−8.2
	NARR	10.2	17.1	−4.5	−0.5	2.2
	ERA-Interim	−4.7	12.4	9.9	7.4	7.9
	WFDEI	33.9	18.6	4.3	15.9	13.5
	HydroGFD	−2.9	−7.8	1.5	6.2	0.5
	ENSEMBLE	7.9	4.2	−0.2	3.9	2.6
Mean air temperature (1981–2010)
Scores	Datasets	Winter	Spring	Summer	Autumn	Annual
RMSE (°C)	ANUSPLIN	0.4	0.5	0.1	0.3	0.2
	NARR	1.9	1.2	1.6	1.6	1.5
	ERA-Interim	0.8	0.4	0.3	0.5	0.2
	WFDEI	0.3	0.7	0.5	0.4	0.4
	HydroGFD	0.3	0.6	0.1	0.3	0.3
	ENSEMBLE	0.7	0.4	0.6	0.6	0.5
BIAS (°C)	ANUSPLIN	−0.2	−0.5	−0.1	−0.1	−0.2
	NARR	1.7	1.1	1.6	1.5	1.5
	ERA-Interim	0.8	−0.2	−0.2	−0.2	0.0
	WFDEI	0.1	0.6	0.4	0.3	0.3
	HydroGFD	−0.2	−0.5	−0.1	−0.1	−0.2
	ENSEMBLE	0.7	0.3	0.5	0.5	0.5

Fig. 3 Area-averaged climatology of (a) monthly total and (b) monthly mean air temperature over the LNRB for the IDW, ANUSPLIN, NARR, ERA-Interim, WFDEI, HydroGFD, and ENSEMBLE datasets, 1981–2010.

Fig. 4 Spatial distribution of the annual total precipitation (mm mo⁻¹) for the (a) IDW, (b) ANUSPLIN, (c) NARR, (d) ERA-Interim, (e) WFDEI, and (f) HydroGFD datasets, 1981–2010.

Fig. 5 Ensemble mean and standard deviation of (left) precipitation and (right) mean air temperature, 1981–2010.

Fig. 6 Spatial distribution of the mean annual air temperature (°C) for the (a) IDW, (b) ANUSPLIN, (c) NARR, (d) ERA-Interim, (e) WFDEI, and (f) HydroGFD datasets, 1981–2010.

Fig. 7 Spatial trends of the annual total precipitation (mm decade⁻¹) from different datasets, 1981–2010. The grid cells with significant trends (p < 0.05) are indicated by dots.

Fig. 8 Seasonal and annual precipitation trends for all datasets and sub-watersheds, 1981–2010: filled circles (annual); DJF (winter) stars; MAM (spring) diamonds; JJA (summer) triangles; SON (autumn) pluses. Red symbols denote significant trends (p < 0.05).

Fig. 9 Spatial trends of the mean annual air temperature (°C decade⁻¹) from different datasets, 1981–2010. Dots indicate grid cells with significant trends (p < 0.05).

Fig. 10 Seasonal and annual mean air temperature trends for all datasets and sub-watersheds, 1981–2010: filled circles (annual); DJF (winter) stars; MAM (spring) diamonds; JJA (summer) triangles; SON (autumn) pluses. Red symbols denote significant trends (p < 0.05).

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