Documentation of multifactorial relationships between precipitation and topography of the Tibetan Plateau using spaceborne precipitation radars

Abstract Precipitation is one of the most important hydrometeorological components of the Tibetan Plateau (TP). The relationships between precipitation and topography in the TP were investigated using 17 years of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) precipitation radar (PR) data and 2 years of Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) dual-frequency precipitation radar (DPR) data. First, the retrieval and total errors of the two radars were quantified in the TP using ground-based precipitation datasets. The TRMM PR and GPM DPR both significantly underestimate the precipitation, with total errors up to 40% and 53%, respectively. Then, precipitation of the two radars was corrected prior to effective application. The correction was separately performed for each river basin in the TP by adding total errors. Finally, precipitation–topography relationships were documented using corrected radar data. The main findings on precipitation–topography relationships are: (1) precipitation generally decreases with increasing elevation from 2 to 6 km in the TP. However, the trend is inverse in the Qaidam Basin which is characterized by extremely low precipitation in the interior basin and high precipitation along the windward slopes of surrounding mountains; (2) quantitative relationships between precipitation and elevation can be depicted for most exorheic basins in the TP using exponential fitting. The coefficients of determination for the fitting are higher than 0.9 in six basins; (3) the relationships based on GPM DPR data are less robust due to its fewer samples, whereas the GPM DPR probably resolves the problem of overestimating precipitation in some grid pixels with high elevation, compared to the TRMM PR; (4) three typical mountains (i.e., Himalaya, Hengduan, and Tianshan mountains) exhibit significantly negative correlation between precipitation and elevation. Particularly, there are two bands of precipitation maxima along the southern slopes of the central Himalayas (78°E–88°E), corresponding to the two-step topography, which affects the vegetation distribution. This study provides insights into the precipitation–topography relationships in the TP and its surrounding regions based on data from spaceborne precipitation radars.

[1]  T. Yasunari,et al.  Diurnal rainfall pattern observed by Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Precipitation Radar (TRMM‐PR) around the Indochina peninsula , 2010 .

[2]  Y. Hong,et al.  The TRMM Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA): Quasi-Global, Multiyear, Combined-Sensor Precipitation Estimates at Fine Scales , 2007 .

[3]  Richard Gloaguen,et al.  Evaluation of precipitation data sets along the Himalayan front , 2011 .

[4]  Yaning Chen,et al.  Distribution pattern of plant species diversity in the mountainous Region of Ili River Valley, Xinjiang , 2011, Environmental monitoring and assessment.

[5]  Ziad S. Haddad,et al.  Raincube: A proposed constellation of precipitation profiling radars in CubeSat , 2014, 2015 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS).

[6]  Toshio Iguchi,et al.  Uncertainties in the Rain Profiling Algorithm for the TRMM Precipitation Radar(1. Precipitation Radar (PR), Precipitation Measurements from Space) , 2009 .

[7]  Di Long,et al.  Systematic Anomalies Over Inland Water Bodies of High Mountain Asia in TRMM Precipitation Estimates: No Longer a Problem for the GPM Era? , 2016, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[8]  Misako Kachi,et al.  Gauge adjusted global satellite mapping of precipitation (GSMaP_Gauge) , 2013, 2014 XXXIth URSI General Assembly and Scientific Symposium (URSI GASS).

[9]  Douglas W. Burbank,et al.  Topography, relief, and TRMM‐derived rainfall variations along the Himalaya , 2006 .

[10]  Hongjie Xie,et al.  Lakes’ state and abundance across the Tibetan Plateau , 2014 .

[11]  Yong-hui Yao,et al.  A topographical model for precipitation pattern in the Tibetan Plateau , 2016, Journal of Mountain Science.

[12]  Tomoo Ushio,et al.  Spatiotemporal Evaluation of the Gauge-Adjusted Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation at the Basin Scale , 2016 .

[13]  Sandra E. Yuter,et al.  Very high resolution rainfall patterns measured by TRMM precipitation radar: seasonal and diurnal cycles , 2012, Climate Dynamics.

[14]  K. Ramasastri,et al.  Topographical Influence on Precipitation Distribution in Different Ranges of Western Himalayas , 1995 .

[15]  Y. Hong,et al.  Evaluation of GPM Day-1 IMERG and TMPA Version-7 legacy products over Mainland China at multiple spatiotemporal scales , 2015 .

[16]  R. Meneghini,et al.  Validation of TRMM Precipitation Radar through Comparison of Its Multiyear Measurements with Ground-Based Radar , 2009 .

[17]  Y. Hong,et al.  Uncertainty analysis of five satellite-based precipitation products and evaluation of three optimally merged multi-algorithm products over the Tibetan Plateau , 2014 .

[18]  Daqing Yang,et al.  A Bias-Corrected Siberian Regional Precipitation Climatology , 2001 .

[19]  A. Kitoh,et al.  APHRODITE: Constructing a Long-Term Daily Gridded Precipitation Dataset for Asia Based on a Dense Network of Rain Gauges , 2012 .

[20]  L. Thompson,et al.  Different glacier status with atmospheric circulations in Tibetan Plateau and surroundings , 2012 .

[21]  Jian Zhang,et al.  Evaluation of a Method to Enhance Real-Time, Ground Radar–Based Rainfall Estimates Using Climatological Profiles of Reflectivity from Space , 2016 .

[22]  Tandong Yao,et al.  Third Pole Environment (TPE) , 2012 .

[23]  Yang Hong,et al.  Observed radiative cooling over the Tibetan Plateau for the past three decades driven by snow cover‐induced surface albedo anomaly , 2017 .

[24]  Yan Shen,et al.  A high spatiotemporal gauge‐satellite merged precipitation analysis over China , 2014 .

[25]  B. Fisher.  Statistical Error Decomposition of Regional-Scale Climatological Precipitation Estimates from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) , 2007 .

[26]  Guoxiong Wu,et al.  Tower mast of precipitation over the central Tibetan Plateau summer , 2006 .

[27]  Zhenchun Hao,et al.  Tibetan Plateau precipitation as depicted by gauge observations, reanalyses and satellite retrievals , 2014 .

[28]  M. Bierkens,et al.  Climate Change Will Affect the Asian Water Towers , 2010, Science.

[29]  Y. Hong,et al.  Similarities and differences between three coexisting spaceborne radars in global rainfall and snowfall estimation , 2017 .

[30]  Zhenchun Hao,et al.  Discharge regime and simulation for the upstream of major rivers over Tibetan Plateau , 2013 .

[31]  Jun Qin,et al.  Recent climate changes over the Tibetan Plateau and their impacts on energy and water cycle: A review , 2014 .

[32]  A. Anders,et al.  Altitudinal Precipitation Gradients in the Tropics from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar , 2015 .

[33]  C. Daly,et al.  A Statistical-Topographic Model for Mapping Climatological Precipitation over Mountainous Terrain , 1994 .

[34]  D. Montgomery,et al.  Spatial patterns of precipitation and topography in the Himalaya , 2006 .

[35]  Hui Lu,et al.  Ground validation of GPM IMERG and TRMM 3B42V7 rainfall products over southern Tibetan Plateau based on a high‐density rain gauge network , 2017 .

[36]  D. Shrestha,et al.  Spatiotemporal variation of rainfall over the central Himalayan region revealed by TRMM Precipitation Radar , 2012 .

[37]  J. Qiu.  China: The third pole , 2008, Nature.

[38]  Xiao-dong Liu,et al.  Climatic warming in the Tibetan Plateau during recent decades , 2000 .

[39]  K. Okamoto,et al.  Rain profiling algorithm for the TRMM precipitation radar , 1997, IGARSS'97. 1997 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium Proceedings. Remote Sensing - A Scientific Vision for Sustainable Development.

[40]  D. Nagesh Kumar,et al.  Evaluation of TRMM PR Sampling Error Over a Subtropical Basin Using Bootstrap Technique , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[41]  Di Long,et al.  Similarity and Error Intercomparison of the GPM and Its Predecessor-TRMM Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis Using the Best Available Hourly Gauge Network over the Tibetan Plateau , 2016, Remote. Sens..

[42]  A. Hou,et al.  The Global Precipitation Measurement Mission , 2014 .

[43]  D. Shrestha,et al.  Characteristics of Summer Precipitation around the Western Ghats and the Myanmar West Coast , 2015 .

[44]  Akiyo Yatagai,et al.  Quantitative estimation of orographic precipitation over the Himalayas by using TRMM/PR and a dense network of rain gauges , 2008, Asia-Pacific Remote Sensing.

[45]  Jaap Schellekens,et al.  MSWEP: 3-hourly 0.25° global gridded precipitation (1979–2015) by merging gauge, satellite, and reanalysis data , 2016 .

[46]  Z. Kawasaki,et al.  A Kalman Filter Approach to the Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP) from Combined Passive Microwave and Infrared Radiometric Data , 2009 .

[47]  Bodo Bookhagen,et al.  Orographic barriers, high‐resolution TRMM rainfall, and relief variations along the eastern Andes , 2008 .

[48]  Yan Shen,et al.  Validation and comparison of a new gauge‐based precipitation analysis over mainland China , 2016 .

[49]  Yang Hong,et al.  Improved modeling of snow and glacier melting by a progressive two‐stage calibration strategy with GRACE and multisource data: How snow and glacier meltwater contributes to the runoff of the Upper Brahmaputra River basin? , 2017 .

[50]  Atsushi Hamada,et al.  Improvements in Detection of Light Precipitation with the Global Precipitation Measurement Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (GPM DPR) , 2016 .

[51]  Y. Hong,et al.  Global analysis of spatiotemporal variability in merged total water storage changes using multiple GRACE products and global hydrological models , 2017 .

[52]  On the use of elevation, altitude, and height in the ecological and climatological literature , 2013, Oecologia.

[53]  Oinam Bakimchandra,et al.  Geographically weighted regression based quantification of rainfall–topography relationship and rainfall gradient in Central Himalayas , 2017 .

[54]  C. Daly,et al.  A knowledge-based approach to the statistical mapping of climate , 2002 .

[55]  Markus Disse,et al.  Evaluation of eight high spatial resolution gridded precipitation products in Adige Basin (Italy) at multiple temporal and spatial scales. , 2016, The Science of the total environment.

[56]  Alex Hall,et al.  Blocking in Areas of Complex Topography, and Its Influence on Rainfall Distribution , 2009 .

[57]  Joshua B. Fisher,et al.  Using GRACE to constrain precipitation amount over cold mountainous basins , 2017 .

[58]  Robert A. Houze,et al.  Monsoon convection in the Himalayan region as seen by the TRMM Precipitation Radar , 2007 .

[59]  J. Janowiak,et al.  CMORPH: A Method that Produces Global Precipitation Estimates from Passive Microwave and Infrared Data at High Spatial and Temporal Resolution , 2004 .

[60]  Xiaoling Chen,et al.  An Assessment of the Biases of Satellite Rainfall Estimates over the Tibetan Plateau and Correction Methods Based on Topographic Analysis , 2008 .