Abstract
Local dry/wet conditions are of great concern in regional water resource and floods/droughts disaster risk management. Satellite-based precipitation products have greatly improved their accuracy and applicability and are expected to offer an alternative to ground rain gauges data. This paper investigated the capability of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) rainfall data for monitoring the temporal and spatial variation of dry/wet conditions in Poyang Lake basin during 1998–2010, and validated its reliability with rain gauges data from 14 national meteorological stations in the basin. The results show that: (1) the daily TRMM rainfall data does not describe the occurrence and contribution rates of precipitation accurately, but monthly TRMM data have a good linear relationship with rain gauges rainfall data; (2) both the Z index and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) based on monthly TRMM rainfall data oscillate around zero and show a consistent interannual variability as compared with rain gauges data; (3) the spatial pattern of moisture status, either in dry months or wet months, based on both the Z index and SPI using TRMM data, agree with the observed rainfall. In conclusion, the monthly TRMM rainfall data can be used for monitoring the variation and spatial distribution of dry/wet conditions in Poyang Lake basin.
Highlights
Floods/droughts are one of the most common natural disasters in China and often cause severe economic losses and serious damage to towns and farms, or even human death [1,2]
It can be seen that both the Z index and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) based on monthly Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) rainfall data oscillate around zero, and their interannual variability generally match well with the results from rain gauge data; it slightly over-predicts some peak values when using TRMM rainfall data
This paper evaluated and compared satellite-based rainfall data (i.e., TRMM) with rain gauge data in Poyang Lake basin and investigated the usefulness of the TRMM rainfall data for monitoring the variation and spatial distribution of dry/wet conditions
Summary
Floods/droughts are one of the most common natural disasters in China and often cause severe economic losses and serious damage to towns and farms, or even human death [1,2]. As well as its surrounding catchments, have suffered from frequent floods and droughts which have caused huge damage to the environment and the agricultural economy during recent decades. It has recently been shown that the frequency and severity of the floods and droughts in Poyang Lake basin have increased since 1990 [5]. The rise in frequency and severity of the floods and droughts could be attributable to the increased fluctuation of warm season rainfall in Poyang Lake basin since 1990 [6], To better understand the recent climatic fluctuations, their manifestation in different sites, and to further monitor floods’ and droughts’ occurrence, it is worthwhile to investigate the spatiotemporal variability of local dry/wet conditions [7], and assess what has become an important prerequisite of floods/droughts disaster prevention and mitigation [8]
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