Climatology-Focused Evaluation of CMORPH and TMPA Satellite Rainfall Products over the Nile Basin

AbstractWith many operational satellite rainfall products being available for long periods, it is now possible to examine whether these products can reproduce climatologically known rainfall characteristics over large river basins that suffer from poor surface monitoring resources. Such assessment is a prerequisite for any further hydrologic applications that rely on these products. The current study evaluates two satellite rainfall products, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis research-grade product (TMPA-3B42) and the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) morphing technique (CMORPH), over the domain of the Nile basin in eastern Africa. The large latitudinal extent of the basin, its complex topography, and its diverse land use result in widely contrasting regimes and distributions of annual and seasonal rainfall. The results suggest that the two products are fairly successful in reproducing some of the region-specific rainfall patterns across climatologically di...

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