Spatial area and distance convergences in different parts of the world using CFSR to force watershed modeling systems

We have previously demonstrated the usefulness of the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) in forcing watershed modeling systems in the continental US, with an emphasis of determining at what distance a weather station had to be from the center of a watershed before the CFSR outperformed direct precipitation measurements. As shown in Figure 1, a plot of the NSE of CFSR and several ASOS weather stations at different distances from the center of a small watershed in New York, USA, the distance can be less than the resolution of the CFSR gridded dataset on a daily basis. In this poster, we present the continuation of our research further studying the distance convergence for basins around the world, as well as delve into the spatial convergence for watershed basins around the globe, realizing that the CFSR is a representation of actual measurements, having an analysis performed four times a day combining precipitation gage, satellite, soundings and other sensors normally included in the initialization of our global and regional weather forecast modeling systems. For further entertainment, we present a synopsis of our continued studies in which we move away from spatial convergence and into an exploration of the temporal convergences seen as we move from daily to hourly time scales.