Multiscale investigations on RDI-SPI teleconnections of Çoruh and Aras Basins, Türkiye using time dependent intrinsic correlation

Abstract

This paper proposes a multiscale dynamic correlation framework based on time-dependent intrinsic correlation (TDIC) to investigate the teleconnections between reconnaissance drought index (RDI) and standardized precipitation index (SPI). The SPI and RDI indices were calculated at 3-, 6-, and 12-month time scales using data from six stations in the Çoruh and Aras (CA) basins in Turkey for the 1969–2020 period. The spatial variability of the evaluation of the drought class demonstrated that, with the exception of the northwestern region (Bayburt station), the correlation between RDI and SPI exceeded 97% and the difference in occurrence between drought classes is found to be marginal. In the multiscale analysis of the two indices, firstly, the Improved Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition with Adaptive Noise (I-CEEMDAN) was employed to decompose the series. The modes of RDI and SPI at different process scales exhibited a strong positive linear correlation, however, the association in their long-term trends may not be of the same nature. The TDIC analysis captured the long-range correlations between the modes of RDI and SPI at diverse process scales, and the newly proposed average significant correlation (ASC) measure could quantify their strength. Within the basin, there exists strong interconnections between SPI and RDI, with the exception of the observed alterations in their nature and strength at short time spells in some inter-annual scales. The proposed TDIC based framework is a generic and robust alternative for multiscale investigation studies while ASC can quantify the strength of non-linear associations at distinct process scales.