| Statistical downscaling models are used to estimate weather data at a station or stations based on atmospheric circulation data defined at a coarser resolution, for example gridded outputs from a Global Climate Model (GCM). Downscaled data can be used as inputs to environmental models that require finer-scale climate fields than are currently available from GCMs. Maintaining realistic downscaling relationships between sites and variables is particularly important in hydrological models, as streamflow depends strongly on the spatial distribution of precipitation in a watershed and on interactions with temperature that determine whether precipitation falls as rain or snow. More generally, precipitation is a difficult variable to downscale because of its... |
