Application of the National Hydrologic Model Infrastructure (NHM) with the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) and Geospatial Fabric version 1.1, 1980-2021, CONUS404BA

This data release contains inputs for and outputs from hydrologic simulations for the conterminous United States (CONUS) using the Precipitation Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) version 5.2.1 and the USGS National Hydrologic Model infrastructure (NHM, Regan and others, 2018). These simulations were developed to provide estimates of the water budget for the period 1980 to 2021 for one pre-calibration and three calibration configurations: 1) calibration by hydrologic response unit (byHRU), 2) calibration by select headwaters (byHW), and 3) calibration by select headwaters with streamflow observations (byHWobs). The four versions of model parameters and associated model output included in this data release are described in Hay and others (2023). The first three years of the simulations are considered “model initialization” and should not be included in any subsequent analysis.
 
Model input files, located on the “Input Data for Hydrologic Simulations of the CONUS using the NHM-PRMS version 1.1, CONUS404BA Calibration” child page, include ASCII formatted PRMS input files of 1) daily time step atmospheric forcings of minimum air temperature (tmin.zip), maximum air temperature (tmax.zip), and precipitation accumulation (precip.zip), 2) four parameter files for the different calibration versions (c404BA_precal_myparam.zip, c404BA_byHRU_myparam.zip, c404BA_byHW_myparam.zip, and c404BA_byHWobs_myparam.zip), 3) a PRMS control file that provides the simulation configuration information (NHM-PRMS_data_release.control), 4) and the PRMS data file that includes time series of streamflow observations (sf_data.zip). Descriptions of model input parameters are included in the parameters_data_dictionary.csv file on this main page. Descriptions of control file parameters are included in the control_data_dictionary.csv file on this main page. Additional information about the model calibration and associated parameters is provided in Hay and others (2023). Additional information about the bias-adjusted CONUS404 (CONUS404BA) atmospheric forcings used for the model application is provided in Zhang and others (2024).
 
Model output files, located on the “Output Data for Hydrologic Simulations of the CONUS using the NHM-PRMS version 1.1, CONUS404BA Calibration” child page, include 18 PRMS output variables for each of the four model simulations corresponding with the four input parameter files (pre-calibration, byHRU, byHW, and byHWobs). Each NetCDF format output file contains daily time step outputs for the period 1980-2021 for each hydrologic response unit or stream segment in the model application. Descriptions of model output variables are included in the output_variables_data_dictionary.csv file on this main page.
 
Streamflow statistics of model performance at selected streamgages are located on the “Simulated streamflow and statistics at streamgages for NHM CONUS CONUS404BA Calibrations, 1980-2021” child page. Each of the four model simulations has an associated csv file of streamflow statistics (gage_stats_c404-bc_.csv) and a NetCDF file of daily streamflow at each streamgage (NHM-PRMS_data_release.nc). Descriptions of the streamflow files are included in the simulated_streamflow_data_dictionary.csv file on this main page.