Identification

Title

CAMELS: Large-Sample Hydrometeorological Dataset

Alternative title(s)

A large-sample watershed-scale hydrometeorological dataset for the contiguous USA

Abstract

This is a community data set of daily forcing and hydrologic response data for 671 small- to medium-sized basins across the contiguous United States (median basin size of 336 km2) that spans a very wide range of hydroclimatic conditions. Area-averaged forcing data for the period 1980 to 2014 was generated for three basin spatial configurations (with variable spatial resolution) - basin mean, hydrologic response units (HRUs) and elevation bands - by mapping daily, gridded meteorological data sets to the subbasin (Daymet) and basin polygons (Daymet, Maurer and NLDAS). Daily streamflow data was compiled from the United States Geological Survey National Water Information System. The focus of this dataset is to (1) be available for community use and (2) provide a model performance benchmark using the coupled Snow-17 snow model and the Sacramento Soil Moisture Accounting Model, calibrated using the shuffled complex evolution global optimization routine. After optimization minimizing daily root mean squared error, 90% of the basins have Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency scores >=0.55 for the calibration period and 34% >= 0.8. This benchmark provides a reference level of hydrologic model performance for a commonly used model and calibration system, and highlights some regional variations in model performance. For example, basins with a more pronounced seasonal cycle generally have a negative low flow bias, while basins with a smaller seasonal cycle have a positive low flow bias. Finally, we find that data points with extreme error (defined as individual days with a high fraction of total error) are more common in arid basins with limited snow and, for a given aridity, fewer extreme error days are present as the basin snow water equivalent increases.

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Dataset

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2018-10-10

Keyword set

keyword value

EARTH SCIENCE > CLIMATE INDICATORS > ATMOSPHERIC/OCEAN INDICATORS > FRESH WATER RIVER DISCHARGE

EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > PRECIPITATION > PRECIPITATION AMOUNT

EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE > SURFACE TEMPERATURE > AIR TEMPERATURE

EARTH SCIENCE > TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE > SURFACE WATER > SURFACE WATER FEATURES > RIVERS/STREAMS

EARTH SCIENCE > TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE > SURFACE WATER > WATERSHED CHARACTERISTICS

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2018-07-18

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

-125

East bounding longitude

-66

North bounding latitude

50

South bounding latitude

25

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

1980-01-01T00:00:00

End position

2014-12-31T00:00:00

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-05-15

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

ASCII - Formatted for text attributes

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

When using this dataset, users acknowledge and accept the following: - Terms of Use (https://www.ucar.edu/terms-of-use) - Copyright Issues (https://www.ucar.edu/notification-copyright-infringement-digital-millennium-copyright-act) - Privacy Policy (https://www.ucar.edu/privacy-policy) - Publication and Information Dissemination (https://www2.fin.ucar.edu/policies/3-5-publication-information-dissemination) - Public Access (https://library.ucar.edu/public-access)

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Research Applications Laboratory

email address

anewman@ucar.edu

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Responsible party

contact position

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Research Applications Laboratory

email address

anewman@ucar.edu

responsible party role

principalInvestigator

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

contact position

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Research Applications Laboratory

email address

anewman@ucar.edu

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2018-10-12T17:00:27

Metadata language