Development of a new high spatial resolution (0.25° × 0.25°) long period (1901-2010) daily gridded rainfall data set over India and its comparison with existing data sets over the region

ABSTRACT. The study discusses development of a new daily gridded rainfall data set (IMD4) at a high spatial resolution (0.25° × 0.25°, latitude × longitude) covering a longer period of 110 years (1901-2010) over the Indian main land. A comparison of IMD4 with 4 other existing daily gridded rainfall data sets of different spatial resolutions and time periods has also been discussed. For preparing the new gridded data, daily rainfall records from 6955 rain gauge stations in India were used, highest number of stations used by any studies so far for such a purpose. The gridded data set was developed after making quality control of basic rain-gauge stations. The comparison of IMD4 with other data sets suggested…