Annual Streamflow Sensitivity to Air Temperature Worldwide, 1901-2013

The purpose of the dataset is to quantify the sensitivity of streamflow to air temperature at 2,673 gages around the world and to evaluate a theory for predicting that sensitivity. This is the second of two datasets containing derived data necessary to reproduce the results of the associated journal article: "On the Sensitivity of Annual Streamflow to Air Temperature," intended for publication in Water Resources Research. The first dataset contains monthly time series of basin-mean precipitation, air temperature, and net radiation, along with basin characteristics. This second dataset, using the first as input, contains empirical and theoretical estimates of annual streamflow sensitivities to precipitation, temperature, and previous-year streamflow. For each basin, a water year was defined by optimization of a streamflow regression against precipitation, temperature, and previous-year streamflow; all variables in the regression were detrended, normalized (except in the case of temperature) anomalies. The coefficients from the optimal regression were the empirical sensitivities. Theoretical sensitivities were computed according to equations in the associated paper. Their computation required estimates of the sensitivities of annual net radiation to precipitation and temperature; these were estimated empirically by regression. Other variables used in the paper and included here are basic basin characteristics; long-term means of streamflow, precipitation, temperature, and net radiation; standard errors of estimation of the regression coefficients for streamflow and net radiation; monthly climatological means of net radiation and temperature; potential evapotranspiration; and adjusted precipitation amounts that make the basin means obey a common relation between aridity index and evapotranspiration ratio.