Evaluation of Precipitation in Multi-Generation Reanalyses with Land Observations over Zhejiang Province

Based on various statistical indices, the abilities of multi-generation reanalyses, namely the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis 1 (R1), the NCEP-DOE Reanalysis 2 (R2) and the NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR), to reproduce the spatiotemporal characteristics of precipitation over Zhejiang Province are comprehensively compared. The mean absolute bias percentages for three reanalyses are 20% (R1), 10% (R2) and 37% (CFSR). R2 (R1) gives the best (worst) general depiction of the spatial characteristics of the observed precipitation climatology, whereas a significant wet bias is noticed in the CFSR. All reanalyses reasonably reproduce the interannual variability with the correlation coefficients of 0.72 (R1), 0.72 (R2) and 0.84 (CFSR). All reanalyses well represent the first two modes of the observed precipitation through Empirical Orthogonal Function analysis, with CFSR giving the best capture of the principal components. The root-mean-square error (RMSE) is the largest (smallest) in the CFSR (R2). The large RMSE of CFSR in summer (especially in June) contributes mostly to its systematic wet bias. After 2001, the wet bias of CFSR substantially weakens, probably attributed to increasing observations assimilated in the CFSR. On a monthly basis, the percentage of neutral bias cases are similar for all reanalyses, while the ratio of positive (negative) bias cases for CFSR is distinctly larger (smaller) than that of R1 and R2. The proportions of negative bias cases for R1 and R2 begin to increase after 2001 while keeping stable for CFSR. On a daily basis, all reanalyses give good performances of reproducing light rain; however, the reflection of moderate rain and heavier rain by the CFSR is better than R1 and R2. Overall, despite being a third-generation reanalysis product, the CRSR does not exhibit comprehensive superiorities over R1 and R2 in all aspects on a regional scale.