A comprehensive investigation of three long-term precipitation datasets: Which performs better in the Yellow River basin?

The fifth generation European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis on global land surface (ERA5-Land), the Multi-Source Weighted-Ensemble Precipitation (MSWEP), and the Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) are three representative precipitation estimates with quasi-global coverage, high-resolution and long-term record. This study concentrates on investigating, for the first time, the long-term spatiotemporal accuracy and regional applicability of these precipitation estimates at a daily scale in the Yellow River basin (YRB) using 39 complete years of data record (1981-2019), with a special focus on their capability on monitoring the extreme precipitation events with short duration and the continuous heavy precipitation events. Results indicate that MSWEP generally performs better than ERA5-Land and CHIRPS in almost all seasons and subregions, with the highest Pearson correlation coefficient and critical success index, lowest root mean square error and false alarm ratio. ERA5-Land presents a severe overestimation of precipitation amount, particularly in the plateau climate region (BIAS = 52.27%), but well reflects its spatial-temporal patterns in the YRB. As for the detecting capability, MSWEP shows the best accuracy in detecting extreme precipitation, particularly in maximum consecutive 5-day precipitation (RX5day). The MSWEP better represents the spatial distribution of maximum 1-day precipitation and maximum consecutive 5-day precipitation in the YRB, but it shows a significant overestimation in zone Southern Qinghai. MSWEP and CHIRPS have better performance of temporal variation consistency in annual precipitation with ground reference than ERA5-Land, while ERA5-Land performs well in capturing extreme precipitation temporal variation, especially for continuous heavy precipitation events. This study can provide useful guidance when choosing long-term precipitation products for hydrometeorological applications and climate-related studies in the YRB. This study concentrates on investigating, for the first time, the long-term (1981-2019) spatiotemporal accuracy and regional applicability of ERA5-Land, MSWEP and CHIRPS at a daily scale in the Yellow River basin (YRB), with a special focus on their capability on monitoring the extreme precipitation events with short duration and the continuous heavy precipitation events. image