Articles | Volume 29, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-85-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-85-2025
Review article
 | 
10 Jan 2025
Review article |  | 10 Jan 2025

Review of gridded climate products and their use in hydrological analyses reveals overlaps, gaps, and the need for a more objective approach to selecting model forcing datasets

Kyle R. Mankin, Sushant Mehan, Timothy R. Green, and David M. Barnard

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Cited articles

Abatzoglou, J. T.: Development of gridded surface meteorological data for ecological applications and modelling, Int. J. Climatol., 33, 121–131, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.3413, 2013. 
Adler, R. F., Kidd, C., Petty, G., Morissey, M., and Goodman, H. M.: Intercomparison of global precipitation products: The third precipitation intercomparison project (PIP-3), B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 82, 1377–1396, 2001. 
Ang, R., Kinouchi, T., and Zhao, W.: Evaluation of daily gridded meteorological datasets for hydrological modeling in data-sparse basins of the largest lake in Southeast Asia, J. Hydrol., Regional Studies, 42, 101135, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2022.101135, 2022. 
Ashouri, H., Hsu, K. L., Sorooshian, S., Braithwaite, D. K., Knapp, K. R., Cecil, L. D., Nelson, B. R., and Prat, O. P.: PERSIANN-CDR: Daily precipitation climate data record from multisatellite observations for hydrological and climate studies, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 96, 69–83, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00068.1, 2015. 
Bandaru, V., Pei, Y., Hart, Q., and Jenkins, B. M.: Impact of biases in gridded weather datasets on biomass estimates of short rotation woody cropping systems, Agr. Forest Meteorol., 233, 71–79, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2016.11.008, 2017. 
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We assess 63 gridded ground (G), satellite (S), and reanalysis (R) climate datasets. Higher-density station data and less-hilly terrain improved climate data. In mountainous and humid regions, dataset types performed similarly; however, R outperformed G when underlying data had low station density. G outperformed S or R datasets, although better streamflow modeling did not always follow. Hydrologic analyses need datasets that better represent climate variable dependencies and complex topography.