Evaluation of latest TMPA and CMORPH precipitation products with independent rain gauge observation networks over high-latitude and low-latitude basins in China

Abstract

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center (CPC) morphing technique (CMORPH) are two important multi-satellite precipitation products in TRMM-era and perform important functions in GPM-era. Both TMPA and CMORPH systems simultaneously upgraded their retrieval algorithms and released their latest version of precipitation data in 2013. In this study, the latest TMPA and CMORPH products (i.e., Version-7 real-time TMPA (T-rt) and gauge-adjusted TMPA (T-adj), and Version-1.0 real-time CMORPH (C-rt) and Version-1.0 gauge-adjusted CMORPH (C-adj)) are evaluated and intercompared by using independent rain gauge observations for a 12-year (2000–2011) period over two typical basins in China with different geographical and climate conditions. Results indicate that all TMPA and CMORPH products tend to overestimate precipitation for the high-latitude semiarid Laoha River Basin and underestimate it for the low-latitude humid Mishui Basin. Overall, the satellite precipitation products exhibit superior performance over Mishui Basin than that over Laoha River Basin. The C-adj presents the best performance over the high-latitude Laoha River Basin, whereas T-adj showed the best performance over the low-latitude Mishui Basin. The two gauge-adjusted products demonstrate potential in water resource management. However, the accuracy of two real-time satellite precipitation products demonstrates large variability in the two validation basins. The C-rt reaches a similar accuracy level with the gauge-adjusted satellite precipitation products in the high-latitude Laoha River Basin, and T-rt performs well in the low-latitude Mishui Basin. The study also reveals that all satellite precipitation products obviously overestimate light rain amounts and events over Laoha River Basin, whereas they underestimate the amount and events over Mishui Basin. The findings of the precision characteristics associated with the latest TMPA and CMORPH precipitation products at different basins will offer satellite precipitation users an enhanced understanding of the applicability of the latest TMPA and CMORPH for water resource management, hydrologic process simulation, and hydrometeorological disaster prediction in other similar regions in China. The findings will also be useful for IMERG algorithm development and update in GPM-era.