The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

photo of Zheng Duan on Lund webpage

Zheng Duan

Associate senior lecturer

photo of Zheng Duan on Lund webpage

Performance of multiple satellite precipitation estimates over a typical arid mountainous area of China : Spatiotemporal patterns and extremes

Author

  • Cheng Chen
  • Zhe Li
  • Yina Song
  • Zheng Duan
  • Kangle Mo
  • Zhiyuan Wang
  • Qiuwen Chen

Summary, in English

Precipitation in arid mountainous areas is characterized by low rainfall intensity and large spatial heterogeneity, which challenges satellite-based monitoring by the spaceborne sensors. This study aims to comparatively evaluate the detection ability of spatiotemporal patterns and extremes of rainfall by a range of mainstream satellite precipitation products [TMPA, Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Station Data (CHIRPS), and PERSIANN-Climate Data Record (PERSIANN-CDR)] over a typical arid mountainous basin of China, benchmarking against rain gauge data from 2000 to 2015. Results showed that satellite precipitation estimates had relatively low accuracy at the daily scale, while a significant improvement of correlation coefficient (CC;>0.6) and a significant reduction of relative root-mean-square error (RRMSE;, 1.0) were found as time scale increases beyond the monthly scale. CHIRPS tended to overestimate the gauge precipitation with positive relative bias (RB), while the negative RBvalues for TMPAand PERSIANN-CDR indicated there was an underestimation. CHIRPS had the most similar spatial pattern and slope trends of the seasonal precipitation and interannual variations of annual precipitation with gauge observations. With the increase in rainfall rates, the probability of detection (POD) and critical success index (CSI) were reduced and the false alarm ratio (FAR) was increased significantly, demonstrating the limited capability for all the three satellite products for detecting heavy rainfall events. CHIRPS showed the best performance in detecting rainfall extremes compared to TMPA and PERSIANN-CDR, evidenced by the largerCSI values and similar extreme rainfall indices obtained from gauge records. This study provides valuable guidance for choosing satellite precipitation products instead of gauge observations for rainfall monitoring (especially rainfall extremes) and agricultural production management over arid mountainous area.

Department/s

  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
  • Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science

Publishing year

2020

Language

English

Pages

533-550

Publication/Series

Journal of Hydrometeorology

Volume

21

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

American Meteorological Society

Topic

  • Oceanography, Hydrology, Water Resources

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1525-755X