Abstract. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
(ECMWF) recently released its most advanced reanalysis product, the ERA5
dataset. It was designed and generated with methods giving it multiple
advantages over the previous release, the ERA-Interim reanalysis product.
Notably, it has a finer spatial resolution, is archived at the hourly time
step, uses a more advanced assimilation system and includes more sources of
data. This paper aims to evaluate the ERA5 reanalysis as a potential
reference dataset for hydrological modelling by considering the ERA5
precipitation and temperatures as proxies for observations in the
hydrological modelling process, using two lumped hydrological models over
3138 North American catchments. This study shows that ERA5-based
hydrological modelling performance is equivalent to using observations over
most of North America, with the exception of the eastern half of the US,
where observations lead to consistently better performance. ERA5 temperature
and precipitation biases are consistently reduced compared to ERA-Interim
and systematically more accurate for hydrological modelling. Differences
between ERA5, ERA-Interim and observation datasets are mostly linked to
precipitation, as temperature only marginally influences the hydrological
simulation outcomes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.