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Monthly Time Series of Streamflow, Precipitation, Air Temperature, and Net Radiation for 2,673 River Basins Worldwide, 1901-2013

April 3, 2018

This is the first of two datasets containing derived data necessary to reproduce the results of the associated journal article: "On the Sensitivity of Annual Streamflow to Air Temperature." This first dataset contains basic basin characteristics of 2,673 gaged basins worldwide, along with associated monthly time series of basin-mean precipitation, air temperature, and net radiation. The streamflow data themselves are available directly from the Global Runoff Data Centre. From the inventory of discharge data holdings of the Global Runoff Data Centre, 2,673 stream gages were selected for which (1) at least 25 complete calendar years of monthly data overlapped in time with available climate data; (2) 500-m-resolution basin shapefiles were available from Global Runoff Data Centre; (3) the Global Reservoir and Dam database listed no artificial reservoirs located within the drainage basin; and (4) mean reported discharge did not exceed either of two estimates of basin precipitation by more than a factor of 10. Monthly precipitation data from the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre, both precipitation and temperature from University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit, and net radiation data from NASA, all on 0.5-degree grids, were areally averaged over the basins.

Publication Year 2018
Title Monthly Time Series of Streamflow, Precipitation, Air Temperature, and Net Radiation for 2,673 River Basins Worldwide, 1901-2013
DOI 10.5066/F7SJ1JVG
Authors Jonghun Kam, Paul C Milly, Krista A Dunne
Product Type Data Release
Record Source USGS Digital Object Identifier Catalog
USGS Organization National Research Program