2.2. Precipitation data
Historical precipitation data for the period 1960 to 2012 at the study site was derived from the China Meteorological Forcing Dataset (CMFD; He and Yang, 2011). The CMFD was developed by the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Science, and include data on air temperature, air pressure, relative humidity, wind speed, downward short-wave radiation, downward long-wave radiation and precipitation at the land surface. The datasets are available via the following link:http://westdc.westgis.ac.cn/data/7a35329c-c53f-4267-aa07-e0037d913a21.
The precipitation data during the study period (2014-2016) were recorded by a portable weather station (AR5, Avolon Scientific, USA) located at the study site. The data logger recorded primary meteorological variables including precipitation, wind speed, solar radiation, air temperature and relative humidity every 30 min.