getprecip function

Download rasters of monthly precipitation from internet

The function getprecip allows for the download of rasters of monthly precipitation from internet. It downloads the "precipitation (mm) WorldClim Version 2.1" at a spatial resolution of 30 seconds (~1 km2). After download, the function also unzip the file. The function getprecip uses the generic function downloadfile that can also be used to download directly other files. This raster needs further processing with the function prepcipitate. It can then be used to predict annual averages precipitation weighted isoscapes with the function isomultiscape.

Source

https://worldclim.org/data/worldclim21.html

getprecip(path = NULL, overwrite = FALSE, verbose = interactive())

Arguments

• path: A string indicating where to store the file on the hard drive (without the file name!). Default = current directory.
• overwrite: A logical indicating if an existing file should be re-downloaded
• verbose: A logical indicating whether information about the progress of the procedure should be displayed or not while the function is running. By default verbose is TRUE if users use an interactive R session and FALSE otherwise. If a numeric is provided instead, additional information about the download will be provided if the number is greater than 1.

Returns

This function returns the path of the folder where the files have been stored

Details

In the argument "path" is not provided, the file will be stored in the current working directory. The functions can create new directories, so you can also indicate a new path. The integrity of the elevation raster is tested after a call to getprecip. In case of corruption, try downloading the file again, specifying overwrite = TRUE to overwrite the corrupted file.

Examples

## To download the monthly precipitation
## in a temporary directory
## directory, just type:
## temp_folder <- tempdir()
## getprecip(path = temp_folder)
## Mind that the file weights ca. 1GB!
## For real use, replace temp_folder by your selected computer path