Regional, national and international climate modeling
- Introduction
- Long term mean climate grids for Canada and the United States
- Historical monthly climate grids for North America
- Daily models
- Climate change scenarios
- Obtain climate estimates at your locations
- Other miscellaneous surfaces
- Bioclimatic Parameter definitions
- Other bioclimatic variables
- References
Other miscellaneous surfaces
Vapour Pressure (Mean Hourly Vapour Pressure by Month, kPa)
One kilopascal is equal to 10millibars, 0.2953 inches of mercury, or 0.145 pounds per square inch.
Values are monthly averages computed from individual hourly observations. It is derived from standard air temperature measurements, and directly measured moisture parameter such as wet-bulb temperature.
Database used in the analysis: 176 stations across Canada from Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC). The monthly values were averaged for the 1961-1990 period using any station with five or more years of records, regardless of missing year-month totals or counts.
Modeling approach: The model is a function of position (longitude and latitude in units of decimal degrees) and elevation above sea level scaled in units of kilometers, with a square root transformation of data values. Mapped values have been transformed back to the appropriate units. Spatially averaged standard errors (RTGCV), ranges from 0.014 kPa in April (3% of the network mean) to 0.024 kPa in January (8% of the network mean)
Sunshine hours (Mean Daily Hours of Bright Sunshine)
This element is used for estimating global radiation using modified Prescott algorithm, for stations that do not have records of global radiation
Database used in the analysis: 363 stations across Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC). The monthly values were averaged for the 1961-1990 period using any station with five or more years of records, regardless of missing year-month totals or counts.
Modeling approach: The model is a function of position (longitude and latitude in units of decimal degrees) and elevation above sea level scaled in units of kilometers. Spatially averaged standard errors (RTGCV), range from 0.34 hours in November (14% of the network mean) to 0.6 hours in July (7% of the network mean).
Global Radiation (Radiation Mean Daily Global Solar, MJ/m2)
Database used in the analysis: 63 stations across Canada from Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC). The monthly values were averaged for the 1961-1990 period using any station with five or more years of records, regardless of missing year-month totals or counts.
Modeling approach: The model is a function of position (longitude and latitude in units of decimal degrees) and a tangential transformation of monthly precipitation as a surrogate for cloudiness. Spatially averaged standard errors (RTGCV), range from 0.3 MJ/m2 in November (9% of the network mean) to 0.9 MJ/m2 in June (4% of the network mean).
Potential Evapotranspiration (Mean monthly Potential evapotranspiration, mm)
Statistic: 30-year monthly means Modeled Bonan Evapotranspiration, from April to October.
Database used in the analysis: Estimated monthly data from Esoclim program, of Monthly Maximum and Minimum Temperature, Precipitation and Radiation were used to create monthly potential evapotranspiration estimates based on the Bonan model outlined in Ecological Modeling (45, 1989, pp.275-306)
Spatial resolution: Point estimates generated on a 300 arc-second grid resolution (~10km).
Modeling approach: The model is a function of position (longitude and latitude in units of decimal degrees) and elevation above sea level scaled in units of kilometers, with a square root transformation of data values.
30 year mean Extreme Daily Minimum Temperature North America 1961-1990
Statistic: 30-year extreme daily minimum temperature
Definition: Extreme daily minimum temperature
Units: degrees C
Database used in the analysis: Daily minimum temperature of 2620 stations across Canada from Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) identified as DLY04 1961-2001 and 1064 stations from United States National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) identified as COOP NDP-070 daily data for 1876-2001, were archived in one data set of 3661 stations and reformatted to comprise extreme daily minimum temperature from three selected months (January and February of the current year and December of the previous year). The data was averaged for 1961-1990 period and a Quality Control (QC) test was performed to detect and delete the records when more than one month of missing data occurred. After initial runs, a second QC was performed, deleting the outlier stations with residuals greater than 10 degrees C or less than –10 degrees C.
Modeling approach: The model is a function of position (longitude and latitude in units of decimal degrees) and elevation above sea level scaled in units of kilometers. Spatially averaged standard error (RTGCV) for the coldest month is about 2.0 degrees C.
12 year mean Extreme Daily Minimum Temperature North America 1974-1986, degrees C
Database used in the analysis: Daily minimum temperature of 2620 stations across Canada from Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) identified as DLY04 1961-2001 and 1064 stations from United States National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) identified as COOP NDP-070 daily data for 1876-2001, were archived in one data set of 2908 stations and reformatted to comprise extreme daily minimum temperature from three selected months (January and February of the current year and December of the previous year). The data was averaged for 1974-1986 period and a Quality Control (QC) test was performed to detect and delete the records when more than one month of missing data occurred. After initial runs, a second QC was performed, deleting the outlier stations with residuals greater than 10 degrees C or less than –10 degrees C.
Modeling approach: The model is a function of position (longitude and latitude in units of decimal degrees) and elevation above sea level scaled in units of kilometers. Spatially averaged standard error (RTGCV), for the coldest month is about 2.0 degrees C.
30 year mean Extreme Daily Minimum Temperature North America 1971-2000, degrees C
Database used in the analysis: Daily minimum temperature of 2620 stations across Canada from Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) identified as DLY04 1961-2001 and 1064 stations from United States National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) identified as COOP NDP-070 daily data for 1876-2001, were archived in one data set of 3639 stations and reformatted to comprise extreme daily minimum temperature from three selected months (January and February of the current year and December of the previous year). The data was averaged for 1971-2000 period and a Quality Control (QC) test was performed to detect and delete the records when more than one month of missing data occurred. After initial runs, a second QC was performed, deleting the outlier stations with residuals greater than 10 degrees C or less than –10 degrees C.
Modeling approach: The model is a function of position (longitude and latitude in units of decimal degrees) and elevation above sea level scaled in units of kilometers. Spatially averaged standard error (RTGCV), for the coldest month is about 2.0 degrees C.
Note: Some of our climate surfaces will be available for downloading to all web users, others require special permission because they have not been completely tested and/or peer reviewed.
Project status
- On-going