Seppä et al. (2026) CAMELS-FI: hydrometeorological time series and landscape properties for 320 catchments in Finland

Identification

• Journal: Earth system science data
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-07-09
• Authors: Iiro Seppä, Carlos Gonzales Inca, Jari Uusikivi, Petteri Alho
• DOI: 10.5194/essd-18-4745-2026

Research Groups

• Department of geography and geology, University of Turku
• Marine and freshwater solutions, Finnish Environment Institute

Short Summary

This paper presents CAMELS-FI, a large-sample hydrological dataset for 320 catchments in Finland. The dataset combines daily discharge values with daily meteorology and various static attributes, aiming to provide high-quality data for applications in Finland.

Objective

• To create a comprehensive and diverse dataset that is useful for many catchment-oriented applications in Finland.
• To ensure consistency and high quality of the data by using the same source datasets for all catchments and performing numerical and manual checks to minimize errors.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Catchments in Finland, covering 73% of the country's total land area.
• Temporal Scale: Daily discharge values from 1961 to 2023, with a median time series length of 45 years.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: None mentioned specifically.
• Data sources:
  • SYKE’s Hydrology API for daily discharge values and gauge metadata.
  • Finnish Meteorological Institute's (FMI) 1km × 1km gridded daily climatology of Finland for meteorological data.
  • ERA5 and ERA5-Land for snow evaporation and snow water equivalent.

Main Results

• The dataset includes 320 catchments, with a median area of 762 km2 and varying levels of regulation.
• Hydrologic signatures were calculated using code from https://github.com/naddor/camels.
• Climatic signatures were calculated using code from Addor (2020).
• Elevation topography descriptors were derived from the NLS’s DEM.

Contributions

• The creation of CAMELS-FI fills a data gap in Finland, providing high-quality and consistent data for applications in hydrology.
• The dataset is compatible with previous CAMELS datasets to facilitate international comparisons.

Funding

• Not mentioned specifically.

Citation

@article{Seppä2026CAMELSFI,
  author = {Seppä, Iiro and Inca, Carlos Gonzales and Uusikivi, Jari and Alho, Petteri},
  title = {CAMELS-FI: hydrometeorological time series and landscape properties for 320 catchments in Finland},
  journal = {Earth system science data},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.5194/essd-18-4745-2026},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4745-2026}
}