This dataset provides downscaled climate projections at 800m spatial resolution for nine ecologically-relevant climate variables for the north central US region between 35.5N-49N latitude and 88W-118W longitude from the National Centre of Meteorological Research (France) model, CNRM-CM5, simulations (r1i1p1) from two emissions scenarios (RCP 4.5 and 8.5), which are downscaled using the Multivariate Adaptive Constructed Analog (MACA) method. These projections are available as five different (approximately) 30-year climate normals between 1950 and 2099 as monthly values, except for Aridity Index which are annual values. The five periods for which these climate normals are provided are 1950-1979 and 1980-2005 in the historic, and 2011-2040, 2041-2070 and 2071-2099 in the future. The nine climate variables include aridity index (unitless), potential evapotranspiration (mm), precipitation (mm), relative humidity (%), downward solar radiation (W.m-2), maximum daily temperature (C), minimum daily temperature (C), average temperature (C), vapor pressure deficit (Pa). Most of these variables were directly available from the 4km MACAv2-METDATA archive at the monthly time frequency, while others such as aridity index, relative humidity, average temperature and vapor pressure deficits were calculated additionally. The climate normals for the different periods (mentioned above) were estimated at 4km spatial resolution and then spatially disaggregated to 800m spatial resolution using bilinear interpolation. A datafile on the elevation of a grid cell at 800m is also made available in this archive.
This dataset provides downscaled climate projections at 800m spatial resolution for nine ecologically-relevant climate variables for the north central US region between 35.5N-49N latitude and 88W-118W longitude from the National Centre of Meteorological R ...