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WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH, VOL. 43, W10406, doi:10.1029/2006WR005364, 2007

A weather generator for hydrological, ecological, and agricultural applications

Valeriy Y. Ivanov

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Center for the Environment, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA


Rafael L. Bras

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA


David C. Curtis

Carlton Engineering, Inc., Shingle Springs, California, USA


Abstract

This paper presents a weather generator that allows simulation of hydrometeorological variables representative of a given geographic location: precipitation, total cloud cover, incoming shortwave radiation, air temperature, humidity, and wind speed. The approach captures the essential relationships among the quantities of interest, while modeling the diurnal variation of weather conditions at the hourly scale. Precipitation is considered to be the key driver of simulated hydrometeorological conditions, which leads to a consistent covariation of the weather variables. The generator was calibrated and validated with data from three meteorological stations located in New Mexico, Arizona, and Oklahoma. The set of variables reproduced by the weather generator can serve as input to a number of models of environmental systems, involving hydrological, ecological, water resources, and agricultural applications. The model is also suitable for creating scenarios of climate regimes (e.g., dry versus wet climates) useful in sensitivity studies. The source codes of the weather generator, manual, and test applications are publicly available.

Received 2 August 2006; accepted 14 June 2007; published 4 October 2007.

Keywords: climate simulator; weather generator; synthetic hydrometeorological series; hydrologic modeling.

Index Terms: 1847 Hydrology: Modeling; 1816 Hydrology: Estimation and forecasting; 1840 Hydrology: Hydrometeorology; 1873 Hydrology: Uncertainty assessment (3275).

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Citation: Ivanov, V. Y., R. L. Bras, and D. C. Curtis (2007), A weather generator for hydrological, ecological, and agricultural applications, Water Resour. Res., 43, W10406, doi:10.1029/2006WR005364.