ADVANCES IN ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES, VOL. 23, NO. 4, 2906, 583-601 Comparison of Products from ERA-40, NCEP-2, and CRU with Station Data for Summer Precipitation over China ‘ZHAO Tianbao™? (F(A) and FU Congbin! (72734) 3 Global Change System for Analysis, Research and Training, Regional Center for Temperate East Asia Key Laboratory of Regional Climate-Environment Research for Temperate East Asia, Institue of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Aendemy of Sciences, Betjing 100029 Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039 (Received 16 June 2005; revised 19 December 2008) ABSTRACT Summer precipitation products fram the 45-Year European Centre for Mediun-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) Reanalysis (ERA~0), and NCEP-Department of Energy (DOE) Atmesphetic Model Intercomparison Project. (AMIP-ID) Reanalysis (NCEP-2), and Climatic Research Unit. (CRU) TS 2.1 dataset are compared with the comespanding chservations over China in order to understand the quality and utility of the reanalysis datasets for the period 1979-2001. ‘The results reveal that although the ‘magnitude and location ofthe rainfall belts difer among the reanalysis, CRU, and station data ower South and West China, the spatial distributions show good agreement, over most areas of China, In comparison With the observations in mest areas of China, CRU best matches the cheered summer precipitation, while ERASIO reports les precipitation and NCEP-2 reports more precipitation than the observations. With regard to the amplitude of the iteranmal variations; CRU is better than either of the wanalyscs in representing the comesponding cleervations. The amplitude in NCEP-2is stronger but that of ERA«IO is ‘weaker than the olservations in most study domains. NCEP-2 has a more obvious interannual variability ‘than ERA~O or CRU in most areas of Fast China. Through an Empirical orthogonal function (BOF) analysis, the main features ofthe rainfall belts produced by CRU agree better with the observations than With these produced by the reaualyses in the Yangtze-Huaihe River valley. In East of China, particularly in the Yangtzmttuaihe River valley, CRU can reveal the quaskbiemialcecillation of summer precipitation represented by the observations, but the signal of FRA~10 & comparatively weal and not very cbvious, ‘wheres that of NCEP.2 also weak befere 1900 but very strong ater 1960. The results also suggest that the magnitude cf the presipitation differance between ERA~ and the observations is smaller than that betwen NCEP-2 and the observations, but the variations represented by NCEP-2 are mote reasonable ‘than those given by ERAS in most aneas of Fast China to some extent. Key words: summer precipitation, reanalysis, otseryations, comparison doi: 10.1007 /+00376-006-050061 1. Introduction ‘The Asian manspan, characterized by scdden wind revarsal and the onset of heavy precipitation during the areal summer over South and East Asia, pro- ‘vides a major portion of the water resourers over some of the most densely populated regions in the world (Ho and Kang, 1988; Lan and Li, 1984; Lan et al., 1988), Because China is located in the Asian sum mer monsoon domain, most precipitation takes place during summer in most areas of China. ‘The sume mer precipitation supplies nearly mest of the fresh "malls chactbien. scien ter required for agriculture and human life, and the most extreme weather events such as droughts and floods occur during summer. ‘This precipitation also ‘causes serious natural disasters and thns bas an impor- tant impact on agriculture and human life, ‘Therefore, the study of the temporal-spatial distribution of sum mer precipitation and its variations over China is not only important to improve climate diagnosis andl to evalunte climate models, but also to investigate water management, agricultural sustainability, and drought and flood menitoring, A better understanding of the global and regional hydrological cycks is the core ofset COMPARISON OF ERAWo, NCFP-2, AND CRU WITH STATION DATA FOR SUMMER PRECIPITATION VOL. 23 the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) a sociated with the Global Energy and Water Cycle Ee periment (GEWEX) (Adler et all, 2003) Jn recent years the widespread application of bal reanalysis dataects, such as the Earopean Cox tre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWE) 40-year reanalysis (ERA-4D, Simmons and Gibson, 2000) the National Centers for Envirorment Predice tion/National Center for Atmospheric Research ro- analysis (NCEP/NCAR, Kalnay et al, 1996; Kistler & al., 2001), and other datasets, has greatly helped us to understand the tamparalspatial distribution of precipitation, to study the hydrdogical balance and ‘energy cycle cn global and regional scales, and to doc- ‘ument the trenck and variations of precipitation, Due to thesystematic biases and uncertainties in the clima tologjcal variables, especially in the surface fhus, the reanalysis datasets cannot replace the observations in representing the real state of the atmosphere and hy» drology (Irenberth et al., 2001; Smith et al., 2001). ‘Moreover, they do not demonstrate well the climato- egical variation trends completdy (Bengtson et all, 2004), The above is true even if the observations may also have some uncertainty due to serious deficiencies over the ocean and in remote land areas, which can influence the accuracy and reliability of scientific stuck ies to a certain extent. Therefore, an evaluation of the refiability and accuracy of reanalysis datascts i signif icant for global and regional climate resoarch, In this paper, our studly mainly focuses on the reliability of products fiom the ERA~40 reanalysis, NCEP-2 reanal ysis, and the CRU climatology chtaset by comparing the temporal-spatial distribution of summer precip tation and its variations with the station data over China, We will not foous on the interpretation of the reasons for the differences between them, Rather, we are interested in evaluating Which dataset is more ap- proximate to the observational dataset in demonstrate ing the hydrological cycle and balance in region of ine terst. Daseriptionsof the data and computation are given in scetion 2. Soction 3 examines the spatial distri bution characteristics of summer precipitation, ‘The observed leacling empirical orthogonal function (HOF) modes of the summer precipitation anomaly and that reproduced by reanalysis over China are investigated in section 4. The intercomparison of the interan- nual variations of the summer precipitation ananaly in East China is discussed in section 5, A summary and concluding remarks are given in section 6. 2. Data description and computational details 2.1 Reanalysis datasets ‘The data uscd in this study cover the monthly pro Gpitation fram 1979 to 2001. Reanalysis datasets are available from two sources, ‘The first & the ERAO re- analysis which worked out by the ECMWE, provided on a 25° x 2.5° latitude-longitude grid, and it cov cas from September 1957 to August 2002, ‘The ERA- 40 provided a very high quality reference atmosphere state for quite a long period and can be considered as; the first member of the sscond generation of global 10> analysis datasets (Uppala et al., 2004). ‘The second is the NCEP-2 decribed by Kanamitsu et al. (2002). ‘The NCEP-2 is a follow-on to the NCEP/NCAR, Reanalysis Project (NCEP-1) (Kalmay et al. 1996; Kistler ot al, 2001). It corrects known errors in the NCEP-1 and can serve as a basic verification for the Scoand Atmosphere Mode Intercomparison. Project (AMIP-ID. This dataset completely covers Jantiary 1979 to the present and can be regarded as an updated NCEP=1 but not a next-generation reanalysis. ‘The surface flux of NCEP-2 is provided an a T62 Gaus- sian grid. Both reanalysis datasets make use of ap- proximately the same observational data and assim lation models, and they are driven by nearly ide tical STs. Although the reanalyses have constant assimilation systems, they both suffer from a change ing observational network as stations change and as Gifferent remote sensing data are introduced. ‘These changes in input data are convolved with the nate ral variability, making estimates of “true” variability ‘nertain (Boye, 2000), Some information about fore cast modds and assimilation systems for the ERA~O and NCEP-2 reanalysis projects is given in Table 1. 2.2 CRU dataset ‘The CRU'TS 2.1 land precipitation dataset used in this study is the new version of CRU datasets which are developed by the CRU of the University of East Anglia, U.K. It is comprised of monthly grids of ob- served climate data for the petiod 1901-2002 and cov cas the global land surface on a 0.5° x 0.5° latitude: Iongitude grid, including oceanic islands but excluding, Antarctica, The original high-resolution (0.5°) climate Fable 1, Information on the assimilation systenss for the ERA‘dO and NCEP-2 reanalyses, Torin Reanalysis, ‘Model Yeas resolution (an) __ Analysis scheme Date Coverae ERO Tine, Loo a7 125 ‘3D Var “ly 1957 to August 2002 NCEP.2 ToD, 128, B 210 SD Vor Jamuaty 1979 to the presentNo.4 Fig. 1. Locations of the stations in China with topcarae phy (units: m). gd was constructed for 1901-1095 (CRU "TS 1.0: New ¢ al,, 2000) and subsequently updated and extended to 2000 (CRU TS 200: Mitchell et al., 2004). ‘This dataset revises and extends those datascts, A more detailed description of the datasets is given in Mitchell andl Jones (2005). 2.3 Observations ‘The observed precipitations, recorded by 730 stae ZHAO ANDFU 505 tions, are taken from the Chinese Meteorological Ad- minstration (CMA) observation archives. About (622 stations that have consistent, records are selected in this study, ‘The modem nation-wide network of ‘weather observation stations in Mainland China be- gan operating in the 1950s, and the number of obser- vation stations has greatly increasod especially after the mid 1970s. All normal stations use siphon maine fall recorders, and a uniform rain gauge to record the amount of rainfall; this provides a continuous graphi- cal record of rainfall against time and can be supplied, on either a daily or weekly basis. The data of all stae tions that are used in this study have undergone strict quality control procedures performed by the National ‘Meteorological Information Center (NMIC) of CMA, to dliminate erroncouss and they are homogenous with significance above the 95% confidence level. ‘The lo- cations of the stations in China with topography are shown in Fig, 1. ‘The dersity of the stations is lower in, the sparsely-populated high mountainous and desert areas of West and Northwest China, ‘The comparisons are made an the 0.5° x 05° Iatitude-longitude grid consistent with the spatial res olution of the CRU dataset, The station data are con- verted onto the 05° x 0.5° latitudelongitude grid in = cong EE ee 1 ant ©) on on 1 1 Ea ea ov on 4 4 on on = =n on an ay an m Fig. 2. Spatial distribution of summer precipitation (JJA) (units: mm); (a) ERA, (b) NCEP- 2 (©) CRU, and (A) ObssSub COMPARISON Cue kitaay, xc Fig. 3. Spilation. {ui absifObes [e senk ilforones Ex, avacrved (Ole) siamuee fo) (ERAO Ole}fOle, {bs [CRY Dbay Ale 'y doxanin chronga cae ondinaxy leiging tech. nique {Phill e al. 1993}, and she reanalys's dus are Loeadly interpolated gute Une dune erie. Iv uréer te perforin a quant ibiliee entaparisa i hs rest. sectinn, chr sindy: domain “« sliviled inter tho slitforonr rogions according to the roriogrephy: the 19- ou with uwau elevatiou below 500m is region L, shat {sill rex election fro n 50 Us 2000 1 ig ego TT AND ORL WILL MOD DALA LOL SLMMEK URECUMLALION VDL. 25 aeuT thunk sith cats elisa ions ales 200004 is rey IIL 3, Comparivon of the spatial distribution of surritier precipita ion ‘Hive spatial distributions af sunnuee (otal precipic atien {nme, July, and Amst: JA) from BIR At, NGLP 2, CRU, aud the staciou claws are showu it ® for the perirsl from TFB 10 SGT. Avenrétg 10 the figure. rhe spatial distritmtions of summer precipica- Linn ligphiyed by KMASAD aiid NCEP-2 hove browd similarity ro thet displayed by can ohsnreasiaas in most regions of Chins. ‘his GRU is more reasonable xan the wamalyss fn eapsming thn. featrres nf the ‘ora tion ancl tatensiry of she rainfall belo: represented by the ohmervations “re nagel areas af China. Although the sparial disrribmtions of precipirasion mwpraseared by the resnalrves aud CRU ave in gvod ogreerient with ther. of the observalions. hers are cnnidrrable slitfsresees iu the suaounts of sununer rainfall between the obsrewions sal the oulwe dats a3 Sine i Fig. 8. The precipitation of ERA is 20%—3i! Ubon thaw of Ube observavious ia ciost areas of China, especially im rhe northwest whew it is Ins than A, said i sonie reious of che Libera: Plateau where itis ivi. However, NCEV-2 shox preepisation tiem the observations 'r most eludy downto except i Ue aorulvest revior of Cis shows 20% TUES less peocipitation and in uost a1eas.of the Li seta Placeau where it shows 200% groan irl ib ig. So}. AS far as He sienann ul pire!pication is conecence, sho CRU is ecoser than any 6" the reansilyses to the obsorettions. Hu dilfersnves Tberwcen the CTR and ebsarvariems sary fun 2 to 20% in most azeas of Chins, ‘The reaver precipica Fina’) GRE han Un alwersee hi wel apse in most areas of the Xiujiang district and the southreest reagan uf Uh ‘Tibetan Mloteou, wl Uke precipi ein valnes of GRU cxzcved “ac observations by i (Fi 3c) where f Js ext ube 2e Round thet the bigwese «iffereuces the other dacasors all exist iu tho Tibetan Peacean, especially ir Ure yasstern plotceu, in whieh the lywer clonsicy of observation star fe esmlt. in kote We getatily “Fhe otnereations, 2 id lta lie resili f the: esiapeerisinte wee naan ar bose nae ine “Che anplitude of iuteree:nual wulasion of the sum rue presipivalion is exaruineé by the sharebard devise ion (Sed). The Stds of reduced by the our dalanels ave nlegseu in Mig. He main featires of Side are aso earsummod by Ube ream sels andl CRI: dlatusess I nov: areas of Chas, ‘le ilfereres hersenen Side far srrviner presipivation are sherea in Fig, 5. Tk-can he sora thot che amplitude of the interou mutl yarlaion repraaiuees, 2 HRA ig Fane smnncer precipitationNo.4 ZHAO ANDFU sor ve ge ope we we ge TS A 7 a a oO 0 OD AD 2. (c) CRU, and (d) Obs. ‘weaker than that of the observations in most areas of ‘orth and Hast China, a phenomenon which is more obvious in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and in South China, but stronger in the Tibetan Plateau (Fig.5a). In contrast to the observations, the amplitude of the interanmmal variations produced by NCEP-2 is stronger than that of the observations in ‘most areas of China, especially in Northeast China and the Tibetan Plateau, but weaker in northwest China and in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River (Fig. 5b). The CRU reveals a weaker ampli tude of interanmal variations in most areas of China Dut shows a stranger amplitude in some regions of the ‘Tibetan Plateau, although the amplitude of the inter- anmal variations shows a more sitrilar spatial distri bution between the CRU and the observations (Fig. 5c), Just as with the spatial pattem of summer pro- Gpitation, the biggest ciferences in Stds appear in the ‘betan Plateau, However, those results are not very rdiable due to the sparsity of stations. “Table 2 shows the zonal mean summer precipita: tion and its Std for four datasets in all areas of China 4. Standard deviation of summer precipitation (JJA) (units: mm); (a) ERA‘), (b) NCEP- and in the three different sub-regions, It alko can be noted that in terms of the relative differences of zonal mean precipitation in the three different regions, the CRU is cloeer to the observations than ERA@i0 and NCEP22, and ERA~) is clser to the observations than NCEP-2, Although, it is not the case for the zonal mean Stds of summer precipitation in differ- ent regions, NCEP-2 shows Gser values than FRA 40 with regards to the observations in the rezion with mean elevation below 500 m (region 1), but CRU is better than either of the reanalysis datasets and ERA- 40 is better than NCEP-2 in showing a loser value to the observations in the regions with mean elevation above 500 m (region I and region II). Hence, it can be assumed that NCEP-2 has a more obvious interan- nual variability than ERA~O and CRU in most areas; of East China, ‘The statistics of areal averages for all datasets in the different regions, however, suffer from severe limitations due to the number of sampling grice points. Due to the uncertainty of the observations, the comparison results obtained from region IIT are very’ unrdiable,COSEARISON Cr BILL-U, XCHIY, AND CHL, 4 SLALOS BALA POLL LMMLI MRECUMLALION VDL. 28 Table 2. Molistice of sumer presipitatia (WA; wud elualurd desiution in kare val sayivas ewer Chaat Cul ha XG ca Tetocatins _" Taal Tainan Sut Taira Bi arnt Sw = 7 my Toxin sey uO ‘03 a ctogion IML aber 06 9 we a Fig. 5 Dilferciwa in standard dosia Jer fie: nance prceapibulaon EMA? (ueitse anus; G2) ERAGAD Olas. (hs NOTP2 Ola [eV CRIS Ole. 4, Comparison of the spatial pattern of the summer rainfall anomaly Ja this vection, 7e nialuly iwectigete the ditfer fences in che spatial parrem of the sramer roral rein Tall sro naly helweweu Ue obeervotigns wid Ure other y vae EOF aualysis moths, EOF aus iy Une wield od of ohiiee for analy ring, wae eswiri ing Ube surability of & single lied, ie ac lield of only one -2 vatiahle smea ss sca lavel pressnro (SLP} ox sen, prirbive Leinpeesalains {SST}. "This mst hod enn fd the slacasors yale spatial pattems of verisbility; their tine variarion, aud The maet impo ant pal leras explaining rhe saan, eens it ¢ lnnated in Ihe Asis asinine neaussnon ckenain, the rainfall has stroug exsonal aud interaut nal variations ix: diffreont regions in Ease Asia. ‘The HOW wnodes vom reprenk Ue spatial peatuerr and To- cation featuos of the stummet rainfal belt i: China, Wgare 6 shuos Ue Pre our banding 6 thelr associated tine series for the obyevatious aud the othe Sarasers, The location foatmres of the sm ne rai TAT TnL in Ue South China reginn vat be captured, a anid hire, by the tise EOF eigeuree lors (Figs, Ba dy of the aisorvationa ard che ether davasets: NCHP-9 eaet CRU cen bot repruduce well the observed fitse cigeaveetor, brit thas resting from ERAS is soneubat ikon How tls uleerved one “Ce perveut verisuee expluite! by the tiret elgeuvec roo ranges from. abour TN% ta 29% of rhe toral variance 7 Le iudividual dataset. “The lite yeries wssoc ioteed swith the Exst eigesector of each dateset (Figs fet do seribes the dlesslapment af Uh valnfnll bare in sam-he en China, ‘The secoud eigenvector cur clearly rep resear sone saatacteristies of the me!-yu brand in rhe twiddle: ane “ox 2 Wie 654i, ‘Tho second cigruvoctir of ERA 40 is wey seal: aad camer. oaviemsly:reflace the rainfall band ia taal senses nd reat ef Hes Yan igs ww alomigin. This unde of NCHP22 is who week aud Ths rainfall holt extends co Titetsm Platoan, Ouly CRU fea prod oo Tis wwe inh li Uke vareepncing, onerved code, the: stone eigenvertoe ranges fra 1 total variiees: af Uh rics of the second eigenvector (Fig, §f} incicatos the Tneanism foarmee of the meieyn hail im rhe Yar gt ec Alusihe River valley. ‘Te card and the fourth LOL cigenvectors (Fig.-la and Fig. Gsl of she obsorvetions The percent. variance explained by 8 18% of the Vas Via: i alicia deteNo.4 ZHAO ANDFU 500 Fig. 6, First four leading BOF eigenvectors and associated time series of the summer precipitation; (a)-{(d) are the first FOF eigenvectors for ERA~10, NCEP-2, CRU, and Obs; (f)-{i) are the second EOF eigenvectors for ERA“10, NCEP-2, CRU, and Obs (k)-(n) are the third EOF eigenvectors, and (p)-(8) are the fourth EOF eigenvectors; (©), G) + (©) and (1) are the first four leading, EOF eigenvector associated time serkes for the corresponding EOF eigenvector,00 COMPARISON OF ERAWo, NCFP-2, AND CRU WITH STATION DATA FOR SUMMER PRECIPITATION VOL. 23 eyegagag ue yegeag Fig, 6. (Continued).No.4 can also represent some features about the summer rainfall band in Fast China. ‘The corresponding FOF modes prochiced by CRU (Fig. 4m and Fig, 6r) perhaps have some similarity to the counterparts prochaced by the observations. However, the same EOP modes pror duced by ERA=l0 and NCEP-2 (Figs, Gkel and Figs. 6p-<) have more differences from the corresponding, observations. From the first three time seties amso- Gated with the EOF eigenvectors, the quasi-biennial oscillation of summer rainfall in most regions of South, China is not only present in the observations but also in the other datasets, ‘The most recent research about the East Asian summer monsoon rainfall which often Jeads to flood and drought in Hast Asia indicates that the summer monsoon rainfall has a quasi-biennial as Gillation signal in East Asia, which is more obvious in the Yangtzo-Huaihe River valley of China (Huang et aly 2001). The percentage of the total variance ex phined by the first two eigenvectors is about 43% for ERAMO, 44% for NCEP-2, 33% for CRU, and 35% for the observations, ‘The percentage of the total variance explained by the first four eigenvectors is over 62% for ERAMO, over 63% for NCEP-2, and over 51% for CRU, and the observation ‘The pattem correlations between the first four leading eigenvectors of the observations and. other datasets are shown in Fig, 7. The pattem correlations ZHAO ANDFU ea {or the first, socand, third, and fourth deprveetors are shown with diferent bars. Tt can be seen that the dgenvector correlations between ERA~40 and the ob» servations are very low, and the first and third eigen ‘vector cocflicents are greater than about 0.2 and the second and fourth eigenvector coefficients are less than 0.1. Between NCEP-2 and the observations, there are high pattern corrdations for the corresponding eige vectors, The first eigenvector ovefficiant is grenter than 0.7, and the other three eigenvector cocfficients; are all over 04. The pattern corrdations of the corresponding, dgenvectors between CRU and the observations are comparatively high, and the first three digenvector oo- flicients are nearly 0.7, although the fourth eigenvec- tor codficient is only greater than 04. Hence, ERA~O performs worse than CRU and NCEP-2in representing, the spatial pattern of the summer rainfall anomaly. 5. Comparison of summer precipitation varia tions in East China “The summer rainfall in most arvas of China is dom inated by the Indian monsoon and the East Asian’ monsoon, which can lead to flood and drought events. Hence, the climatological rainfall not only has obvious: intraseasonal variations but also interannual variations; in Fast China, Figure 8 shows the time sories of the os oz 6 ma 05, oa axed 08 a pow ot o Ist mnde 2nd sede Fig. 7. Pattem correlations between the EOF eigenvectors of the observations and ‘the comesponding eigenvectors of individual dataset over China. ard mde 4th mode Fig, 8 Time series of summer precipitation (1JA)_anomalies of different datasets Fig. 8 ‘Time serks of summer totakprecipitation anomalies of different datasets averaged for land grid points: Eastern China (eest of 105°E) (units: mm).COMPARISON OF ERA4o, NCFP-2, AND CRU WITH § ION DATA FOR SUMMER PRECIPI HON VOL. 25 aon} asl Fig, 9, Timelatitude cress sections of summer precipitation (JJA) anomalies averaged over 1OSE-199°E fer different datasets (units: mum). Obs. summer precipitation anomalies of the observations and the other datasets averaged over the land grid points cast 105°E in China, In this region, the sa face elements such as temperature and precipitation are generally five from the impact of the terrain, As shown in the figure, the 23-year linear trends of sume ‘mer precipitation reflected by each dataset are all ine ‘avasing trenck, ‘The linoar trends reprochiced by CRU, are more consistent with the corresponding observe tions in most years than those produced by the reanae ysis datasets, although some small differences can be ‘deeected in them around 1999, ‘The trends reproduced by ERAMO and NCEP-2 are almost consistent with cach other and have obvious differences from the ob- served, even though there are similar interannual var ations between them, As discussed in the previous sec- tion, the time series of summer precipitation anoma- lies ao reveal quasi-biennial cecillation signals in East (China from the observations and the other datasets, alk though the amplitudes are different for each individual dataset. Figire 9 shows the timelatitude cross sections of the summer precipitation anomaly averaged from 105°E to 12H in East China for the reanalysis (@) ERAS, (b) NCEI :) CRU, and (a) datasets, CRU, and observations, ‘The reanalysis datasets and CRU can all capture the heavy summer rainfall event of 1998 in the middle andl lower reaches of the Yangtze River according to the rainfall features reflected in the observations. ‘The differences between the reanalysis datasets and the observations are more obvious than that between CRU and the observations. CRU agrees very well with the observations although, it is a little wealer in some years; ERAWO reveals ‘weak variations in most, years and & not obvious be- fore the mid 1980s, while NCEP-2 reproduces more intense rainfall in 1968 than the observations in the middle and Jower reaches of the Yangtze River and 55 also not obvious before the mid 1980s, CRU can’ capture well the quastbiennial oscillation signal of the sutrmer rainfall interannual variations represented by the observations north of about 30°N, However, both ERA~40 and NCEP-2 cannot represent this signal very early before the mid 19805. Further study is made through comparisons of the extratropical 50)+iPa geopotential eight, surface lae tent hoar flix, 850 hPa wind filed, and relative humic ity, whidh are four important factors associated with the precipitation, between ERA~40 and NCEP-2 in theNo.4 study domain, The results indicate that the differs ences in the summer precipitation between ERAD and NCEP-2 are likey to be a systematic bias caused by the assimilation systems and prediction systems. Details of the comparison are not given here due to space considerations, 6. Summary and discussion Jn thisstudy, we investigated the reliability of sum mer precipitation from the ERA~O reanalysis, NCEP- 2 reanalysis, and the CRU climatological dataset by a ‘comparison with the station data for the period 1979 2001, ‘The main conclusions are as follows: () The spatial distributions of summer total pre- Gpitation represented by ERA-40, NCEP-2, and CRU, are all broadly similar to that of the observations in ost areas of China, In these areas, the ER40 reports, Jess but NCEP-2 reports more summer precipitation than the observations, and CRU is better than either of the reanalysis dataerts in representing the observed summer precipitation. In terms of the magnitude of rainfall differences, the differences betwen ERA~4D and the observations are smaller than those between NCEP-2 and the observations in mast study domains. “The obvious differences between the observations and the other datasets appear in the Tibetan Plateau, par ticularly in the westem plateat, such that the results of this comparison are unreliable due to the uncer tainty of the observations caused by the low density of observation stations. With regard to the amplitude of interannual variations, CRU & better than either of the reanalysis datasets in representing the correspond ing observations, ‘That of NCEP-2 is stranger but that of ERA-40 is weaker than that of the observations in most study domains, NCEP-2 has a more obvious ine terannual variability than ERA=10 and CRU in most areas of East China. (2) Through an EOF analysis, in most areas of China, particularly in the Yangtze-Huaihe River val ley, the fist four eading EOF modes derived from the observations can clearly represent the development of the rainfall belts in summer. The corresponding EOF modes produced by CRU are similar to these of the observations. ‘Those produced by ERA&i0 are citer very weak simply or cannot represent the main fea turesof theainfall belts, whileat the same time, those of NCEP-2 are better than ERA) but poorer than CRU. (8) Although the reanalysis and CRU datasets can all capeure most of the features of the summer rain- fall spatial pattem over China, their interanmel vari ations differ from those of the observations. In East China, ERA-40 shows weak interannual variations in thesummer rainfall which are not very obvigusin same ZHAO ANDFU years, but NCEP-2 shows strong interannual variae tions in the summer rainfall; only CRU displays ite terannual variations of the summer rainfall consistent ‘with the olxervations, In the oast of China, especially in the Yangtze-Huaihe River valley, the observations, and the CRU data can both reveal the quasi-biennial cscillation of summer precipitation, but the signal of ERAO is comparatively weak and not very obvious, ‘whereas the counterpart of NCEP-2 is also weak bo- fore 1990 but becomes stronger after 1990, The results also suggest that the magnitudes of the precipitation differences between ERA~40 and the observations are smaller than those between NCEP-2 and the obser vations, but the temporal and spatial variations repro- sented by NCEP-2 may be more reesonable than those of ERA+10 in East China. The differences in the sume mer precipitation between ERA and NCEP-2 are ely cared by a systematic bias. In addition, the complex terrain and the interpo- lation method may have caused errors when we inter- olated the obscrvations from stations onto a regular spatial grid, and the uncertainty of the obscrvations due to sparse stations in West China can also give rise toa bias. ‘Then issues create a gront obstacle in rear sonably validating the reliability and accuracy of the reanalysis data, Therefore, finding out how to correct the impact of terain on the datasets and how to ime prove the accuracy of interpolation in the future may improve our ability tovalidate the rdial i data desived from different sources. Acknowledgments, — The authors thank Pro- fssor Dai Xinzang for providing good advice and other useful suaspstions for this study, and the spe ial thank woukl be given to ECMWP public web) server (hitys/ /datacomf.int/data/) and NOAA-CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center (htip://wwwiedemcna,/) for providing the free reanalysis datasets. This work was supported by National Key Besic Rexarch Program of China (Grant No, 2006CB400540). REFERENCES Adkr, RF and Coauthors, 2003: The Version-2 Global Precipitation Climatology: Project (GPCP) Monthly Precipitation Amlbsis (1979present). Journal of Hy» drometeotology, 4(6), VA7-1167. Bengtson, E., H. Stefan, and I, H. Kevin, 2004 Can elk ‘mate trends be calculated from reanalysis data, J. Geopluss Res», 1095 DULL. Boyle, J. Su, 2000: Comparison of variability of the monthly ‘moan temperature of the BUMWF an NCEP reanale yses and CCMB and CSM simulations. 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