Maps of the monthly self-calibrating Palmer drought severity index (SCPDSI) have been calculated for the period 1901–2002 for the contiguous United States (20°–50°N and 130°–60°W) and Europe (35°–70°N, 10°W–60°E) with a spatial resolution of 0.5° × 0.5°
Key Strengths:
- High resolution
- The SC-PDSI improves upon the PDSI by maintaining consistent behavior of the index over diverse climatological regions. This makes spatial comparisons of SC-PDSI values on continental scales more meaningful.
Key Limitations:
- Not updated
Years of Record
1901/01 to 2002/12
Formats
Timestep
Monthly
Data Time Period Extended?
no, data set not being extended
Domain
Spatial Resolution
0.5x0.5
Ocean or Land
Land Only
Vertical Levels
- van der Schrier G, Briffa KR, Jones PD and Osborn TJ (2006a) Summer moisture variability across Europe. Journal of Climate 19, 2818-2834
- van der Schrier G, Briffa KR, Osborn TJ and Cook ER (2006b) Summer moisture availability across North America. Journal of Geophysical Research 111, D11102
- Wells, N., Goddard, S. and Hayes, M. J. (2004) A Self-Calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index, J. Climate 17:2335-2351
- Mitchell TD and Jones PD (2005) An improved method of constructing a database of monthly climate observations and associated high-resolution grids. International Journal of Climatology 25, 693-712
