View article

Space–time variability of precipitation plays a key role as driver of many environmental processes. The objective of this study is to evaluate a spatiotemporal (STG) Neyman–Scott Rectangular Pulses (NSRP) generator over orographically complex terrain for statistical downscaling of climate models. Data from 145 rain gauges over a 5760-km² area of Cyprus for 1980–2010 were used for this study. The STG was evaluated for its capacity to reproduce basic rainfall statistical properties, spatial intermittency, and extremes. The results were compared with a multi-single site NRSP generator (MSG). The STG performed well in terms of average annual rainfall (+1.5 % in comparison with the 1980–2010 observations), but does not capture spatial intermittency over the study area and extremes well. Daily events above 50 mm were underestimated by 61 %. The MSG produced a similar error (+1.1 %) in terms of …