Table 1.
Classification of global weather databases and examples of published studies using these databases to understand current and future agricultural productivity. Weather databases used in the present study have been underlined
| Classification | Source | Time step | Reference and time interval | Geospatial coverage | Reported variables* | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Point-based data | Weather stations | Daily | HPRCC†, CMA‡, DWD§ (1983–2010) | Regional | Tmin, Tmax, precip, wind speed, Tdew Temp, RH, vapor pressure, radiation | Sinclair & Rawlins (1993), Wang & Connor (1996), Peng et al. (2004), Grassini et al. (2009), Cassman et al. (2010) |
| NOAA¶(1900–2010) | Global | Tmin, Tmax, precip, Tdew, wind speed, RH, vapor pressure | ||||
| Gridded data | Interpolated and generated based on data from weather stations, satellites, ocean buoys, etc. | Daily | NCEP/DOE Reanalysis II||(1979–2010) | Global (2.5° × 2.5°) (ca. 70 000 km2)¶¶ | Tmin, Tmax, wind speed, precip, RH, wind speed, radiation | Lobell & Asner (2003), Nemani et al. (2003), Schlenker & Roberts (2009), Twine & Kucharik (2009) |
| ERA-Interim Reanalysis (1989–2013)** | Global (1.5° × 1.5°) (ca. 25 000 km2) | Tmin, Tmax, wind speed, precip, RH, wind speed, radiation | Rötter (1993), de Wit et al. (2010) | |||
| Interpolated from weather stations | Monthly | CRU05 (3.10)††, Univ. Delaware Climate Dataset (1961–2009) | Global (0.5° × 0.5°) (ca. 3000 km2) | Tmin, Tmax, total precip, no. of wet days, vapor pressure | Fischer et al. (2002), Foley et al. (2005), Bondeau et al. (2007), Lobell (2007), Lobell et al. (2008), Battisti & Naylor (2009), Licker et al. (2010), Lobell et al. (2011) | |
| Average 50-year monthly mean | WorldClim‡‡ (1950–2000) | Global(ca. 1 km2) | Tmin, Tmax, total precip, no. of wet days | Ortiz et al. (2008), Nelson et al. (2010) | ||
| Satellite | Daily | NASA-Power§§(1983–2010) except precip (1997–2010) | Global 1° × 1° (ca. 12 000 km2) | Tmin, Tmax, precip, Tdew, radiation, RH | Lobell et al. (2010) |
Minimum temperature (Tmin), maximum temperature (Tmax), precipitation (precip), relative humidity (RH), incident solar radiation (radiation).
High Plains Regional Climate Center (HPRCC). http://www.cma.gov.cn/english/.
China Meteorological Administration (CMA). http://www.cma.gov.cn/english/.
German Weather Service (DWD. http://www.dwd.de/.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Global Historical Climate Data-daily: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/ghcn-daily/.
National Center for Environmental Prediction/Department of Energy (NCEP). http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.ncep.reanalysis2.html.
ECMWF re-analysis (ERA). http://www.ecmwf.int/research/era/do/get/era-interim.
Climate Research Unit (CRU). http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/cru/.
WorldClim. http://www.worldclim.org/.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). http://power.larc.nasa.gov/.
Aproximate grid cell area near the equator.