Evaluation of TMPA 3B42 Precipitation Estimates during the Passage of Tropical Cyclones over New Caledonia

Abstract

This study evaluates the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) 3B42 version 7 (V7) estimates of tropical cyclone (TC) rainfall over New Caledonia using the island rain gauge observations as the ground-truth reference. Several statistical measures and techniques are utilised to characterise the difference and similarity between TMPA and the gauge observations. The results show that TMPA has skill in representing the observed rainfall during the passage of TCs. TMPA overestimates light rainfall events and underestimates moderate to higher rainfall events. The skill deteriorates with increasing elevation, as underestimation by TMPA is greater at higher altitudes. The ability of TMPA also varies with TC intensity and distance from the TC centre, whereby it is more skilful for less intense TCs (category 1-2) and near the TC centre than in the outer rainbands. The ability of TMPA varies from case to case but a better performance is shown for TCs with a higher average rainfall. Finally, case studies of TC Vania (2011), TC Innis (2009), and TC Erica (2003) show that TMPA has the ability to represent the spatial distribution of the observed rainfall, but it tends to underestimate the higher rainfall events.