Performances of NCEP-NCAR and NCEP-DOE reanalysis data for winter seasonal mean air temperature and winter seasonal total precipitation amount over the Western Himalayas (WH)

Surface weather observations over the Western Himalayas (WH) are spatially and temporally inhomogeneous and short in data length. Various reanalysis products provide estimates of spatially and temporally homogeneous meteorological (climatological) variables. Such data products can serve as an important dataset in the absence of adequate observations over the WH for various applications linked to and influenced by weather and climate. However, performances of various reanalysis products are not known over the WH. In this study, performances of National Centres for Environmental Prediction and National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCEP-NCAR) reanalysis data (R1) and NCEP-Department of Energy (DOE) (NCEP-DOE) reanalysis data (R2) for winter seasonal mean air temperature and winter seasonal total precipitation amount are evaluated at nine station locations over the WH. Air temperatures of R1 and R2 at 700 hPa pressure surface are found to be spatially and temporally consistent, and precipitable water contents of R1 and R2 are found to be inconsistent with each other over the WH. Mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE) and bias for air temperature and precipitable water content of R1 and R2 are computed at different station locations over the WH. Errors (MAE, RMSE) and biases for air temperature and precipitation amount are found to be higher for R1 compared to R2. Performances of R1 and R2 for air temperature are found poor for stations at lower elevations compared to stations at higher elevations. R1 and R2 are found to perform better for air temperature compared to precipitation amount over the WH.