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Rainfall statistics, stationarity, and climate change.


ABSTRACT: There is a growing research interest in the detection of changes in hydrologic and climatic time series. Stationarity can be assessed using the autocorrelation function, but this is not yet common practice in hydrology and climate. Here, we use a global land-based gridded annual precipitation (hereafter P) database (1940-2009) and find that the lag 1 autocorrelation coefficient is statistically significant at around 14% of the global land surface, implying nonstationary behavior (90% confidence). In contrast, around 76% of the global land surface shows little or no change, implying stationary behavior. We use these results to assess change in the observed P over the most recent decade of the database. We find that the changes for most (84%) grid boxes are within the plausible bounds of no significant change at the 90% CI. The results emphasize the importance of adequately accounting for natural variability when assessing change.

SUBMITTER: Sun F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5878000 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Rainfall statistics, stationarity, and climate change.

Sun Fubao F   Roderick Michael L ML   Farquhar Graham D GD  

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20180220 10


There is a growing research interest in the detection of changes in hydrologic and climatic time series. Stationarity can be assessed using the autocorrelation function, but this is not yet common practice in hydrology and climate. Here, we use a global land-based gridded annual precipitation (hereafter <i>P</i>) database (1940-2009) and find that the lag 1 autocorrelation coefficient is statistically significant at around 14% of the global land surface, implying nonstationary behavior (90% conf  ...[more]

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