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Robinson, E.L.; Blyth, E.; Clark, D.B.; Finch, J.; Rudd, A.C.

Climate hydrology and ecology research support system potential evapotranspiration dataset for Great Britain (1961-2012) [CHESS-PE]
(CHESS-PE)

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THIS DATASET HAS BEEN SUPERSEDED The latest version is Climate hydrology and ecology research support system potential evapotranspiration dataset for Great Britain (1961-2019) [CHESS-PE]

If you need access to the archived version, please contact the EIDC

https://doi.org/10.5285/d329f4d6-95ba-4134-b77a-a377e0755653
1km resolution gridded potential evapotranspiration over Great Britain for the years 1961-2012. This dataset contains time series of two potential evapotranspiration variables. The first is potential evapotranspiration (PET) (mm/day) calculated using the Penman-Monteith equation [1] for FAO-defined well-watered grass [2]. The second is potential evapotranspiration with interception correction (PETI) (mm/day), which adds a correction for interception by a well-watered grass on days in which there is rainfall. Both PET and PETI are calculated using the Climate Hydrology and Ecology research Support System meteorology dataset (CHESS-met) meteorological variables [3].

[1] Monteith, J. L.: Evaporation and environment, in: 19th Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology, University Press, Cambridge, 1965
[2] Allen, R. G., Pereira, L. S., Raes, D., and Smith, M.: Crop evapotranspiration - Guidelines for computing crop water requirements, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy, FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper, 1998.
[3] Robinson, E. L., Blyth, E., Clark, D. B., Finch, J., Rudd, A. C. (2015). Climate hydrology and ecology research support system meteorological dataset (1961-2012) [CHESS-met] . NERC-Environmental Information Data Centre https://doi.org/10.5285/80887755-1426-4dab-a4a6-250919d5020c
Publication date: 2015-11-12
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More information

View numbers valid from 01 June 2023 (information prior to this was not collected)

Format

netCDF

Spatial information

Study area
Spatial representation type
Raster
Spatial reference system
OSGB 1936 / British National Grid

Temporal information

Temporal extent
1961-01-01    to    2012-12-31

Provenance & quality

The PET (mm/day) was calculated by applying the Penman-Monteith equation [1] for a well-watered grass surface [2] to the air temperature, specific humidity, downward long- and shortwave radiation and surface air pressure from the Climate hydrology and ecology research support system meteorology dataset (CHESS-met) [3]. To calculate PETI (mm/day) an interception correction is applied on days with non-zero rainfall, by interpolating between PET and potential interception assuming an exponential dry-down. On dry days the PETI is equal to the PET. The PETI is calculated using all of the same input variables as the PET, as well as the precipitation from the CHESS-met dataset, which is the CEH-Gridded Estimates of Areal Rainfall (CEH-GEAR) daily rainfall estimates [4,5] scaled to units of kg m-2 s-1. The PET and PETI data were created using software developed in python. For further detail see the Supporting Documentation.

[1] Monteith, J. L.: Evaporation and environment, in: 19th Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology, University Press, Cambridge, 1965
[2] Allen, R. G., Pereira, L. S., Raes, D., and Smith, M.: Crop evapotranspiration - Guidelines for computing crop water requirements, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy, FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper, 1998.
[3] Robinson, E. L., Blyth, E., Clark, D. B., Finch, J., Rudd, A. C. (2015). Climate hydrology and ecology research support system meteorological dataset (1961-2012) [CHESS-met] . NERC-Environmental Information Data Centre doi:10.5285/80887755-1426-4dab-a4a6-250919d5020c
[4] Tanguy, M., Dixon, H., Prosdocimi, I., Morris, D. G., Keller, V. D. J. (2014). Gridded estimates of daily and monthly areal rainfall for the United Kingdom (1890-2012) [CEH-GEAR]. NERC-Environmental Information Data Centre doi:10.5285/5dc179dc-f692-49ba-9326-a6893a503f6e
[5] Keller,V. D. J., Tanguy, M. , Prosdocimi, I. , Terry, J. A. , Hitt, O., Cole, S. J. , Fry, M., Morris, D. G., Dixon, H. (2015) CEH-GEAR: 1km resolution daily and monthly areal rainfall estimates for the UK for hydrological use. Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., 8, 83-112 doi:10.5194/essdd-8-83-2015.

Licensing and constraints

THIS DATASET HAS BEEN SUPERSEDED The latest version is Climate hydrology and ecology research support system potential evapotranspiration dataset for Great Britain (1961-2019) [CHESS-PE]

If you need access to the archived version, please contact the EIDC

Licence terms and conditions apply

Cite this dataset as:
Robinson, E.L.; Blyth, E.; Clark, D.B.; Finch, J.; Rudd, A.C. (2015). Climate hydrology and ecology research support system potential evapotranspiration dataset for Great Britain (1961-2012) [CHESS-PE]. NERC Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/d329f4d6-95ba-4134-b77a-a377e0755653

Citations

Robinson, E. L., Blyth, E. M., Clark, D. B., Finch, J., & Rudd, A. C. (2017). Trends in atmospheric evaporative demand in Great Britain using high-resolution meteorological data. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 21(2), 1189–1224. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-1189-2017
Guillod, B. P., Jones, R. G., Dadson, S. J., Coxon, G., Bussi, G., Freer, J., … Hall, J. W. (2018). A large set of potential past, present and future hydro-meteorological time series for the UK. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 22(1), 611–634. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-611-2018
Lane, R.A., Coxon, G., Freer, J.E., Wagener, T., Johnes, P.J., Bloomfield, J.P., … Reaney, S.M. (2019). Benchmarking the predictive capability of hydrological models for river flow and flood peak predictions across over 1000 catchments in Great Britain. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 23(10), 4011–4032. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-4011-2019
Afzal, M., Vavlas, N., & Ragab, R. (2020). Modelling study to quantify the impact of future climate and land use changes on water resources availability at catchment scale. In Journal of Water and Climate Change (Vol. 12, Issue 2, pp. 339–361). IWA Publishing. https://doi.org/10.2166/wcc.2020.117
Fadhel, S., Rico-Ramirez, M.A., & Han, D. (2017). Uncertainty of Intensity–Duration–Frequency (IDF) curves due to varied climate baseline periods. In Journal of Hydrology (Vol. 547, pp. 600–612). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.02.013
Fadhel, S., Rico-Ramirez, M. A., & Han, D. (2018). Sensitivity of peak flow to the change of rainfall temporal pattern due to warmer climate. In Journal of Hydrology (Vol. 560, pp. 546–559). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.03.041
Rahman, M., & Rosolem, R. (2017). Towards a simple representation of chalk hydrology in land surface modelling. In Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (Vol. 21, Issue 1, pp. 459–471). Copernicus GmbH. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-459-2017
Jenkins, J. M., Kowalski, M., & Alvarenga, E. F. S. (2018). Predictive modelling of water losses using random forests on weather covariates. In Water Supply (Vol. 18, Issue 6, pp. 2180–2187). IWA Publishing. https://doi.org/10.2166/ws.2018.044
Kiraz, M., Coxon, G. & Wagener, T. (2023) A priori selection of hydrological model structures in modular modelling frameworks: application to Great Britain. Hydrological Sciences Journal 68, 2042–2056. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2023.2251968
Guillod, B., Jones, R.G., Dadson, S.J., et al. (2018) A large set of potential past, present and future hydro-meteorological time series for the UK. ETH Zurich https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000239029
Jacque, H., Knox, J.W., Gush, M., & Holman, I.P. (2023). Modelling the potential of rainwater harvesting to improve the sustainability of landscape and public garden irrigation. In Journal of Environmental Management (Vol. 348, p. 119167). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119167
High Speed Two (HS2) Limited (2022). Document to inform a Habitats Regulations Assessment for Rostherne Mere Ramsar site and Midland Meres and Mosses Phase 1 Ramsar site (EC-016-00003). The UK Government. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/document-to-inform-a-habitats-regulations-assessment-for-rostherne-mere-ramsar-site-and-midland-meres-and-mosses-phase-1-ramsar-site-ec-016-00003
High Speed Two (HS2) Limited (2022). Water resources assessment (WR-003-0MA06). The UK Government. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/water-resources-assessment-wr-003-0ma06

Supplemental information

The CHESS Explorer application provides the ability for users to preview the data, visualise maps of the different meteorological variables, and understand how they vary across the country and through time.

Correspondence/contact details

Robinson, E.
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Maclean Building, Benson Lane, Crowmarsh Gifford
Wallingford
Oxfordshire
OX10 8BB
UNITED KINGDOM
 enquiries@ceh.ac.uk

Authors

Robinson, E.L.
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Blyth, E.
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Clark, D.B.
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Finch, J.
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Rudd, A.C.
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

Other contacts

Custodian
NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
 info@eidc.ac.uk
Publisher
NERC Environmental Information Data Centre
 info@eidc.ac.uk

Additional metadata

Topic categories
climatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere
INSPIRE theme
Meteorological geographical features
Keywords
Climate and climate change , evaporation , evapotranspiration , gridded data , interception , Modelling , transpiration
Last updated
21 March 2025 13:36