Department of Commerce / National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
As part of the NCA5 process, an independent validation was conducted of the two statistically downscaled climate data products used in the NCA5 report. The goal was to assess consistency among these products under a suite of metrics and diagnostics, and to inform the careful use of these data products in decision-making. In general, the two products were found to be largely consistent with each other. The minor differences between products are attributed to climate variability, downscaling methodology and observational uncertainty. The full report, Validation of LOCA2 and STAR-ESDM Statistically Downscaled Products, also provides recommendations to users. The research was funded by DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Earth and Environmental Systems Sciences Division and is available here.