Abstract
This chapter compares six gridded products over West Africa: Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS); Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM); Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP); Global Precipitation Climatology Center (GPCC); Climate Prediction Center (CPC); and CPC MORPHing technique (CMORPH), in order to assess uncertainties of daily precipitation characteristics. These gridded precipitation products are intercompared and further compared to actual gauge measurements from selected stations. We analyze some sector-specific climate indices derived from ClimPACT2, an R package for calculating climate extremes for sector applications. Results show that the gridded products display substantial systematic differences in the mean rainfall, mostly in sector-specific indices such as frequency of wet days, precipitation intensity, as well as consecutive wet and dry days. GPCC shows mostly higher maximum length of wet spell but has less precipitation intensity relative to CMORPH. Some of the gridded observations capture the monsoon rain belt evolution and show a good representation of the daily precipitation statistics within the range of the gauge dataset. Relative to gauges, CHIRPS, TRMM, GPCP, and GPCC produced reasonable estimates, but CPC and CMORPH show large difference in all seasons. Apart from CPC and CMORPH, the gridded products compare favorably well and thus make them suitable for impact studies to support adaptation policies that will enhance resilience against future extreme events. Due to the difference in the gridded observations, it is, however, necessary to be careful when drawing conclusions for planning interventions in climate-sensitive sectors, such as, health, water resources and hydrology, agriculture, and food security.
Published Version
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