A Novel Framework for Correcting Satellite-Based Precipitation Products for Watersheds with Discontinuous Observed Data, Case Study in Mekong River Basin

Abstract

Satellite-based precipitation (SP) data are gaining scientific interest due to their advantage in producing high-resolution products with quasi-global coverage. However, since the major reliance of precipitation data is on the distinctive geographical features of each location, they remain at a considerable distance from station-based data. This paper examines the effectiveness of a convolutional autoencoder (CAE) architecture in pixel-by-pixel bias correction of SP products for the Mekong River Basin (MRB). Two satellite-based products (TRMM and PERSIANN-CDR) and a gauge-based product (APHRODITE) are gridded rainfall products mined in this experiment. According to the estimated statistical criteria, the CAE model was effective in reducing the gap between SP products and benchmark data both in terms of spatial and temporal correlations. The two corrected SP products (CAE_TRMM and CAE_CDR) performed competitively, with CAE TRMM appearing to have a slight advantage over CAE CDR, however, the difference was minor. This study’s findings proved the effectiveness of deep learning-based models (here CAE) for bias correction of SP products. We believe that this technique will be a feasible alternative for delivering an up-to-current and reliable dataset for MRB studies, given that the sole available gauge-based dataset for this area has been out of date for a long time.