QUALITY OF GRID-BASED METEOROLOGICAL DATA IN BRAZIL: A STUDY IN CLIMATICALLY CONTRASTING REGIONS

Meteorological information is fundamental in agriculture, tourism, and civil defense, used for monitoring, weather forecasting, and climate analysis. In Brazil, the National Institute of Meteorology (INMET) is responsible for collecting and disseminating this data, which often has gaps. To mitigate these deficiencies, databases have been developed to fill these gaps. In this context, the present study aimed to compare observed meteorological data from four Brazilian municipalities with distinct climates to the estimates provided by the XAVIER gridded database. We used a 30-year historical series (1979 to 2018) covering the following variables: maximum and minimum air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, precipitation, and global solar radiation. Several statistical indicators were employed for the comparative analysis. The results showed that temperature estimates had high accuracy, with performance indices considered excellent. Global solar radiation also showed promising results. However, wind speed revealed variability, presenting challenges for estimation. Relative humidity and precipitation showed mixed performance across the municipalities but were generally considered satisfactory. This study highlights the potential of the XAVIER database as a resource to complement existing gaps in meteorological data.