Global Precipitation Trends across Spatial Scales Using Satellite Observations

Abstract

Little dispute surrounds the observed global temperature changes over the past decades. As a result, there is widespread agreement that a corresponding response in the global hydrologic cycle must exist. However, exactly how such a response manifests remains unsettled. Here we use a unique recently developed long-term satellite-based record to assess changes in precipitation across spatial scales. We show that warm climate regions exhibit decreasing precipitation trends, while arid and polar climate regions show increasing trends. At the country scale, precipitation seems to have increased in 96 countries, and decreased in 104. We also explore precipitation changes over 237 global major basins. Our results show opposing trends at different scales, highlighting the importance of spatial scale in trend analysis. Furthermore, while the increasing global temperature trend is apparent in observations, the same cannot be said for the global precipitation trend according to the high-resolution dataset, PERSIANN-CDR, used in this study.

Spatiotemporal Analysis of Precipitation in the Sparsely Gauged Zambezi River Basin Using Remote Sensing and Google Earth Engine

“…Our results are consistent with other studies on precipitation trends in the Zambezi River Basin and its sub-basins [27,46]. Recently, Nguyen et al [27] adopted the PERSIANN-CDR and studied the precipitation patterns of the Zambezi River Basin. They found no significant trend for the mean annual precipitation when aggregated over the Zambezi River Basin [27].…”

“…They found no significant trend for the mean annual precipitation when aggregated over the Zambezi River Basin [27]. Likewise, our study took an in-depth evaluation of spatial patterns of the mean annual precipitation using TRMM data and found only 11% of the Zambezi River Basin presented significant precipitation trends, while the remaining 89% presented non-significant trend, which agrees well with the results from Nguyen et al [27]. Beyer et al [47] also found significant spatial-temporal variability of rainfall in the rainy season in the Upper Zambezi River Basin, which is in accordance with the high spatial-temporal heterogeneity of precipitation observed in this study.…”

“…Recently, Nguyen et al [27] adopted the PERSIANN-CDR and studied the precipitation patterns of the Zambezi River Basin. They found no significant trend for the mean annual precipitation when aggregated over the Zambezi River Basin [27]. Likewise, our study took an in-depth evaluation of spatial patterns of the mean annual precipitation using TRMM data and found only 11% of the Zambezi River Basin presented significant precipitation trends, while the remaining 89% presented non-significant trend, which agrees well with the results from Nguyen et al [27].…”

“…However, the spatial resolution of this product is too coarse (2.5 • × 2.5 • grid cell) for sub-country or regional applications. Most recently, Nguyen et al [27] used the PERSIANN-CDR product (spatial resolution of 0.25 • ) to study precipitation trends over different climate zones at country and continental levels. Although precipitation patterns have been studied at various spatial scales, they are rarely investigated at different temporal scales (i.e., annually, seasonal and monthly), which is also important for rain-fed agriculture management.…”

Genomewide analysis of biomass responses to water withholding in young plants of maize inbred lines with expired plant variety protection certificate

“…The total number of loci crossing the arbitrarylog(P) threshold of 4 was 29 ( Figure 5), while only 3 loci for DMC in C crossed the calculated Bonferonni threshold of 5.45 (Figure 5e). No SNPs crossing the arbitrary threshold of 4 was detected for FW in C. The detected loci were distributed over 6 of 10 chromosomes (1,2,3,6,7,9). R 2 values of the detected loci ranged from 4.71 to 9.33% ( Table 2) Genetic structure The results of PC analysis in this study were similar to those of Beckett et al [38] in a study of genetic diversity in ex-PVP germplasm.…”