Definition of Climate Regions in the Northern Plains Using an Objective Cluster Modification Technique

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Abstract
Spatially homogeneous climate regions were developed from long-term monthly temperature and precipitation data for a subset of the U.S. Northern Plains. Climate regions were initially defined using the “best” of three agglomerative and hierarchical clustering methodologies, then the clusters were objectively modified using a “pseudohierarchical” iterative improvement technique. Under the premise of hierarchical cluster analysis, once an object has been assigned to a cluster, it cannot later he reassigned to a different cluster, even if it is statistically desirable. The objective modification technique used herein is employed to compensate for this problem. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to reduce a 147-station dataset, consisting of 24 climatic variables averaged over the 1931–1990 period, to three orthogonal components. The new standardized mars, which explain 93% of the original dataset variance, were then subjected to the Ward's, average linkage, and complete linkage clustering m... Abstract Spatially homogeneous climate regions were developed from long-term monthly temperature and precipitation data for a subset of the U.S. Northern Plains. Climate regions were initially defined using the “best” of three agglomerative and hierarchical clustering methodologies, then the clusters were objectively modified using a “pseudohierarchical” iterative improvement technique. Under the premise of hierarchical cluster analysis, once an object has been assigned to a cluster, it cannot later he reassigned to a different cluster, even if it is statistically desirable. The objective modification technique used herein is employed to compensate for this problem. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to reduce a 147-station dataset, consisting of 24 climatic variables averaged over the 1931–1990 period, to three orthogonal components. The new standardized mars, which explain 93% of the original dataset variance, were then subjected to the Ward's, average linkage, and complete linkage clustering m...

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