Climatic Research Unit : Data
Drought indices
Self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI)
The scPDSI metric was introduced by Wells et al. (2004), who give detailed
information about its calculation. The scPDSI is a variant on the original
PDSI of Palmer (1965), with the aim to make results from different climate
regimes more comparable. As with the PDSI, the scPDSI is calculated from
time series of precipitation and temperature, together with fixed parameters
related to the soil/surface characteristics at each location.
For Europe (van der Schrier et al., 2006a) and North America
(van der Schrier et al., 2006b), we have calculated the scPDSI values using as input the interpolated fields
of monthly precipitation and temperature observations available in the
CRU high-resolution surface climate data set
CRU TS 2.1 (Mitchell and Jones,
2005). These span the period 1901-2002 and are on a resolution of
0.5 degrees longitude by 0.5 degrees latitude.
For the European Alps region (van der Schrier et al., 2007), we have calculated the scPDSI values using as input the
interpolated fields of monthly precipitation and temperature observations published by
Efthymiadis et al. (2006). These span the period 1800-2003 and are on a resolution
of 10 minutes longitude by 10 minute latitude.
These data sets and their associated papers were produced with
funding from the UK NERC under the Rapid Climate Change programme
(grant NER/T/S/2002/00440). Additional support for co-authors was provided by
the European Commission under the SO&P project (EVK2-CT-2002-00160) for Europe and North
America, by
the European Commission under the ALP-IMP project (EVK2-CT-2002-00148) for European Alps,
and by NOAA (NAO30AR4320179) for North America.
scPDSI for Europe (1901-2002, 0.5° lat-lon resolution)
When using these data, please cite:
van der Schrier G, Briffa KR, Jones PD and Osborn TJ (2006a) Summer moisture variability across Europe. Journal of Climate 19, 2818-2834
(doi:10.1175/JCLI3734.1).
scPDSI for North America (1901-2002, 0.5° lat-lon resolution)
When using these data, please cite:
van der Schrier G, Briffa KR, Osborn TJ and Cook ER (2006b) Summer moisture availability across North America. Journal of Geophysical Research 111, D11102
(doi:10.1029/2005JD006745).
scPDSI for European Alps (1800-2003, 10-minute lat-lon resolution)
When using these data, please cite:
van der Schrier G, Efthymiadis D, Briffa KR and Jones PD (2007) European Alpine moisture variability for 1800-2003. International Journal of Climatology 27, 415-427
(doi:10.1002/joc.1411).
References
- Efthymiadis D, Jones PD, Briffa KR, Auer I, Bohm R, Schoner W,
Frei C, Schmidli J (2006) Construction of a 10-min-gridded
precipitation dataset for the Greater Alpine Region 1800-2003.
Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres 111, D01105
(doi:10.1029/2005JD006120).
- Mitchell TD and Jones PD (2005) An improved method of constructing a database
of monthly climate observations and associated high-resolution grids.
International Journal of Climatology 25, 693-712 (doi:10.1002/joc.1181).
- Palmer WC (1965) Meteorological drought. Weather Bureau Paper 45, US Dept. of Commerce, Washington D.C.
- van der Schrier G, Briffa KR, Jones PD and Osborn TJ (2006a) Summer moisture variability across Europe. Journal of Climate 19, 2818-2834.
- van der Schrier G, Briffa KR, Osborn TJ and Cook ER (2006b) Summer moisture availability across North America. Journal of Geophysical Research 111, D11102
(doi:10.1029/2005JD006745).
- van der Schrier G, Efthymiadis D, Briffa KR and Jones PD (2007) European Alpine moisture variability for 1800-2003. International Journal of Climatology 27, 415-427
(doi:10.1002/joc.1411).
- Wells N, Goddard S and Hayes MJ (2004)
A self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index.
Journal of Climate 17, 2335-2351.
- van der Schrier G, Briffa KR, Jones PD and Osborn TJ (2006a) Summer moisture variability across Europe. Journal of Climate 19, 2818-2834
(doi:10.1175/JCLI3734.1).
- Wells N, Goddard S and Hayes MJ (2004) A self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index. Journal of Climate 17, 2335-2351
(doi:10.1175/1520-0442(2004)017<2335:ASPDSI>2.0.CO;2).
Last updated: May 2007, Tim Osborn