Seasonal Bias Correction of Daily Precipitation over France Using a Stitch Model Designed for Robust Representation of Extremes

Highly resolved and accurate daily precipitation data are required for impact models to perform adequately and correctly measure the impacts of high-risk events. In order to produce such data, bias correction is often needed. Most of those statistical methods correct the probability distributions of...

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Main Authors: Philippe Ear, Elena Di Bernardino, Thomas Laloë, Adrien Lambert, Magali Troin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-04-01
Series:Atmosphere
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/16/4/480
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author Philippe Ear
Elena Di Bernardino
Thomas Laloë
Adrien Lambert
Magali Troin
author_facet Philippe Ear
Elena Di Bernardino
Thomas Laloë
Adrien Lambert
Magali Troin
author_sort Philippe Ear
collection DOAJ
description Highly resolved and accurate daily precipitation data are required for impact models to perform adequately and correctly measure the impacts of high-risk events. In order to produce such data, bias correction is often needed. Most of those statistical methods correct the probability distributions of daily precipitation by modeling them with either empirical or parametric distributions. A recent semi-parametric model based on a penalized Berk–Jones (BJ) statistical test, which allows for automatic and personalized splicing of parametric and non-parametric distributions, has been developed. This method, called the Stitch-BJ model, was found to be able to model daily precipitation correctly and showed interesting potential in a bias correction setting. In the present study, we will consolidate these results by taking into account the seasonal properties of daily precipitation in an out-of-sample context and by considering dry days probabilities in our methodology. We evaluate the performance of the Stitch-BJ method in this seasonal bias correction setting against more classical models such as the Gamma, Exponentiated Weibull (ExpW), Extended Generalized Pareto (EGP) or empirical distributions. Results show that a seasonal separation of data is necessary in order to account for intra-annual non-stationarity. Moreover, the Stitch-BJ distribution was able to consistently perform as well as or better than all the other considered models over the validation set, including the empirical distribution, which is often used due to its robustness. Finally, while methods for correcting dry day probabilities can be easily applied, their relevance can be discussed as temporal and spatial correlations are often neglected.
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spelling doaj-art-667b9cf005634df4bbe4e31ec81cda692025-08-20T02:24:43ZengMDPI AGAtmosphere2073-44332025-04-0116448010.3390/atmos16040480Seasonal Bias Correction of Daily Precipitation over France Using a Stitch Model Designed for Robust Representation of ExtremesPhilippe Ear0Elena Di Bernardino1Thomas Laloë2Adrien Lambert3Magali Troin4Hydroclimat, 13400 Aubagne, FranceLaboratoire J.A. Dieudonné, UMR CNRS 7351, Université Côte d’Azur, 06108 Nice, FranceLaboratoire J.A. Dieudonné, UMR CNRS 7351, Université Côte d’Azur, 06108 Nice, FranceHydroclimat, 13400 Aubagne, FranceHydroclimat, 13400 Aubagne, FranceHighly resolved and accurate daily precipitation data are required for impact models to perform adequately and correctly measure the impacts of high-risk events. In order to produce such data, bias correction is often needed. Most of those statistical methods correct the probability distributions of daily precipitation by modeling them with either empirical or parametric distributions. A recent semi-parametric model based on a penalized Berk–Jones (BJ) statistical test, which allows for automatic and personalized splicing of parametric and non-parametric distributions, has been developed. This method, called the Stitch-BJ model, was found to be able to model daily precipitation correctly and showed interesting potential in a bias correction setting. In the present study, we will consolidate these results by taking into account the seasonal properties of daily precipitation in an out-of-sample context and by considering dry days probabilities in our methodology. We evaluate the performance of the Stitch-BJ method in this seasonal bias correction setting against more classical models such as the Gamma, Exponentiated Weibull (ExpW), Extended Generalized Pareto (EGP) or empirical distributions. Results show that a seasonal separation of data is necessary in order to account for intra-annual non-stationarity. Moreover, the Stitch-BJ distribution was able to consistently perform as well as or better than all the other considered models over the validation set, including the empirical distribution, which is often used due to its robustness. Finally, while methods for correcting dry day probabilities can be easily applied, their relevance can be discussed as temporal and spatial correlations are often neglected.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/16/4/480bias correctionextreme value theorygoodness-of-fitparametric distributionprecipitation modeling
spellingShingle Philippe Ear
Elena Di Bernardino
Thomas Laloë
Adrien Lambert
Magali Troin
Seasonal Bias Correction of Daily Precipitation over France Using a Stitch Model Designed for Robust Representation of Extremes
Atmosphere
bias correction
extreme value theory
goodness-of-fit
parametric distribution
precipitation modeling
title Seasonal Bias Correction of Daily Precipitation over France Using a Stitch Model Designed for Robust Representation of Extremes
title_full Seasonal Bias Correction of Daily Precipitation over France Using a Stitch Model Designed for Robust Representation of Extremes
title_fullStr Seasonal Bias Correction of Daily Precipitation over France Using a Stitch Model Designed for Robust Representation of Extremes
title_full_unstemmed Seasonal Bias Correction of Daily Precipitation over France Using a Stitch Model Designed for Robust Representation of Extremes
title_short Seasonal Bias Correction of Daily Precipitation over France Using a Stitch Model Designed for Robust Representation of Extremes
title_sort seasonal bias correction of daily precipitation over france using a stitch model designed for robust representation of extremes
topic bias correction
extreme value theory
goodness-of-fit
parametric distribution
precipitation modeling
url https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/16/4/480
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