Evaluation of IMERG for GPM satellite-based precipitation products for extreme precipitation indices over Turkiye

Abstract

As hydrological disasters become more common, the need for monitoring extreme precipitation events is growing globally. Remote sensing technologies developed in recent years help to meet this demand with satellite-based precipitation products, particularly for ungauged basins. However, due to limitations and uncertainties, these products must be validated before being used in hydrometeorological/climatological applications. Validation studies also help improve retrieval algorithms by identifying errors and biases in the data that can be corrected or adjusted. One of NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement products, called Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG), has been extensively validated for its ability to detect extreme precipitation events in drastically different climate regions across the world. However, such studies remain limited for Turkiye. In this study, we examined the ability of IMERG Early (E), Late (L), and Final (F) products to detect extreme precipitation in Turkiye using rain gauge data over an eleven-year period (2010−2020). We used extreme precipitation indices recommended by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection Indices (ETCCDI) to evaluate the ability of IMERG products to detect extreme precipitation. For the stations selected across Turkiye, the Pearson correlation coefficients (R) between daily ground-based precipitation measurements and the three IMERG precipitation products (IMERG-E, IMERG-L, and IMERG-F) were found to be 0.54, 0.55, and 0.64, respectively. IMERG products performed better in detecting the precipitation extreme based on the 85% percentile compared to the 95% and 99% percentiles. IMERG underestimates consecutive dry days by about 25% while overestimating consecutive wet days at the same rate. The performance of IMERG Early, Late, and Final products is inversely proportional to the daily precipitation totals. The annual intensity of precipitation outperformed in the Final run compared to other products across the country. Light and moderate rainfall was detected well, while the detection capability of IMERG decreased for heavy and heavy torrential precipitation. Geographically, the Aegean, Mediterranean, and Southeastern Anatolia regions generally performed better, while Eastern Anatolia and interior parts of the Black Sea region exhibited poorer performance. The low performance in Eastern Anatolia may be attributed to the region's mountainous terrain, while the low performance in the Black Sea region may be due to orographic forcing and land-sea interaction. Overall, the findings of this study showed that the detection capability of IMERG products performed better with increasing latency.