Statistical downscaling skill under present climate conditions: A synthesis of the VALUE perfect predictor experiment

VALUE is a network that developed a framework to evaluate statistical downscaling methods including model output statistics such as simple bias correction and quantile mapping; perfect prognosis methods such as regression models and analog methods; and weather generators. The first experiment addres...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Maraun, Douglas, Widmann, Martin, Gutiérrez, José M.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/213840
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/213840
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Bias correction
Evaluation
Regional climate
Statistical downscaling
Validation
Descripción
Sumario:VALUE is a network that developed a framework to evaluate statistical downscaling methods including model output statistics such as simple bias correction and quantile mapping; perfect prognosis methods such as regression models and analog methods; and weather generators. The first experiment addresses the downscaling performance in present climate with perfect predictors. This paper presents a synthesis of the VALUE special issue, with a focus on the results of this first experiment. This paper presents a synthesis of the results. Model output statistics performs mostly well, but requires predictors at a resolution close to the target one. Perfect prog performance depends crucially on model structure and predictor choice. Weather generators perform in principle well for all aspects that can be expressed by the available model structure. Inter-annual variability is underrepresented by both perfect prog and weather generator approaches. Spatial variability is poorly represented by almost all participating methods (inherited by model output statistics from the driving model, not represented by the perfect prog and weather generator methods). Further studies are required to systematically assess (a) the role of predictor choice for perfect prog; (b) the performance of spatial weather generators, to study the performance based on GCM predictors; (c) downscaling skill in simulated future climates; and (d) the credibility of simulated predictors in a future climate.