Parameters for PITRI Precipitation Temporal Disaggregation over continental US, Mexico, and southern Canada, 1981-2013

This dataset contains parameter values for the Precipitation Isosceles Triangle (PITRI) precipitation disaggregation method (Bohn et al., 2019) over the CONUS+Mexico domain (southern Canada, the continental US, and Mexico; 14.65 - 53° N latitude, 65-125° W longitude), at 1/16° (6 km) spatial resolution. There are two parameters: "dur" (mean event duration [minutes]) and "t_pk" (mean time of peak precipitation intensity [minutes from beginning of day]).  In each land grid cell, each parameter has 12 climatological mean monthly values for the period 1981-2013.

The file containing the dataset is in NetCDF format. The PITRI algorithm has been implemented as an option in the MetSim meteorology simulator (https://github.com/UW-Hydro/MetSim/releases/tag/1.0.0_tri; Bennett et al., 2018), and the dataset is structured as an input "domain" file for MetSim. To use this algorithm within MetSim, set the "prec_type" option to "triangle" or "mix" in the configuration file.

The "mix" option is a blend of the "uniform" (previous) method and the "triangle" method that fixes biases in snow accumulation rates yielded by the "triangle" method in some climates. "mix" uses the "uniform" method on days for which minimum daily temperature falls below 0 C, and "triangle" method on all other days.

Algorithm details can be found in the following paper, which should be cited if you use this dataset (this record will be updated when the paper is published):

Bohn, T. J., K. M. Whitney, G. Mascaro, and E. R. Vivoni, 2019: A deterministic approach for approximating the diurnal cycle of precipitation for use in large-scale hydrological modeling, Journal of Hydrometeorology (accepted), doi: 10.1175/JHM-D-18-0203.1.