Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals For GPM Products Research Articles

Performance Assessment of Satellite-Based Precipitation Products in the 2023 Summer Extreme Precipitation Events over North China

In the summer of 2023, North China experienced a rare extreme precipitation storm due to Typhoons Doksuri and Khanun, leading to significant secondary disasters and highlighting the urgent need for accurate rainfall forecasting. Satellite-based quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) products like Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) and Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP) from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission have great potential for enhancing forecasts, necessitating a quantitative evaluation before deployment. This study uses a dense rain gauge as a benchmark to assess the accuracy and capability of the latest version 7B IMERG and version 8 GSMaP satellite-based QPE products for the 2023 summer extreme precipitation in North China. These satellite-based QPE products include four satellite-only products, namely IMERG early run (IMERG_ER) and IMERG late run (IMERG_LR), GSMaP near-real-time (GSMaP_NRT), and GSMaP microwave-infrared reanalyzed (GSMaP_MVK), along with two gauge-corrected products, namely IMERG final run (IMERG_FR) and GSMaP gauge adjusted (GSMaP_Gauge). The results show that (1) GSMaP_MVK, IMERG_LR, and IMERG_FR effectively capture the space distribution of the extreme rainfall, with relatively high correlation coefficients (CCs) of approximately 0.77, 0.75, and 0.79. The IMERG_ER, GSMaP_NRT, and GSMaP_Gauge products exhibit a less accurate spatial pattern capture (CCs about 0.66, 0.73, and 0.67, respectively). Each of the six QPE products tends to underestimate rainfall (RBs < 0%). (2) The IMERG products surpass the corresponding GSMaP products in serial rainfall measurement. IMERG_LR demonstrates superior performance with the lowest root-mean-square error (RMSE) (about 0.38 mm), the highest CC (0.97), and less underestimation (RB about −6.37%). (3) The IMERG products at rainfall rates ≥ 30 mm/h, GSMaP_NRT and GSMaP_MVK products at rainfall rates ≥ 55 mm/h, and GSMaP_Gauge products at ≥ 40 mm/h showed marked limitations in event detection, with a near-zero probability of detection (POD) and a nearly 100% false alarm ratio (FAR). In this extreme precipitation event, caution is needed when using the IMERG and GSMaP products.

Quality assessment of the GPM IMERG product for lifetime prediction of turbine blades in complex terrain

Wind turbine blades may suffer leading edge erosion when rain hits the blades extremely fast, resulting in blade damage that will negatively impact power production. Since wind turbines are growing in size, this translates into higher tip speeds when the blades rotate and, therefore, are more prone to erosion. Wind turbines in mountainous terrain may also suffer erosion due to the high winds and precipitation rates. Therefore, it becomes important to estimate blade lifetimes in wind farm sites with terrain complexity. Blade lifetime prediction models utilize a time series of rainfall intensity, wind speeds, and a turbine-specific tip speed curve. In our study, we assess the quality of the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) final product in a blade lifetime prediction model for a mountainous area during the period 2015-2020. We first compare the IMERG rainfall intensities against in situ observations at 28 stations in Navarra in Northern Spain. We find that the two datasets are closer to agreement when the rainfall intensities are aggregated in monthly rather than 30-minute temporal scales with correlation coefficients between 0.74 - 0.93. We calculate the average annual rainfall in the period, and we find that IMERG over(under)estimates precipitation in 15 (8) stations, in line with previous studies that have pinpointed the limitations of IMERG in complex terrain. We then input the 30-minute IMERG, in situ rainfall intensities, and the 30-minute New European Wind Atlas (NEWA) wind speeds, extracted at each station location and interpolated at 119 m height, into a blade lifetime model. Our results indicate blade lifetimes of 6-17 years in 13 stations, with the in situ data to provide, on average, longer estimates than the IMERG product. Despite the limitations, we conclude that the satellite-based precipitation from IMERG may become a useful dataset for the lifetime estimation of wind turbine blades in complex terrain, with calibration and adjustments of the IMERG data.

Statistical Downscaling of Remote Sensing Precipitation Estimates Using MODIS Cloud Properties Data over Northeastern Greece

The aim of this study is to spatially downscale the daily precipitation data from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, using the Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG), utilizing cloud properties from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument. Cloud optical thickness (COT), cloud effective radius (CER), and cloud water path (CWP) are used to statistically downscale IMERG precipitation estimates from 0.1 to 0.01° spatial resolution, using the Multivariate Linear Regression (MLR) and residual correction methods. The downscaled precipitation estimates were subsequently validated using in situ rain gauge measurements. The residual corrected IMERG downscaled precipitation estimates were found to be more accurate than the downscaled predicted precipitation without the implementation of the residual correction algorithm (up to 37%), with a respective decrease of the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) (up to 75%), Normalized Root Mean Square Error (NRMSE) (up to 79%), and the Percent Bias (PB) (up to 98%). In addition, the final downscaled product after the MLR method implementation with residual correction was better correlated with the rain gauge observations than the initial IMERG product (up to 20%). Thus, the implementation of the MLR method in conjunction with the residual correction algorithm is an efficient tool for downscaling remote sensing products with a coarse spatial resolution.

An Evaluation of IMERG and ERA5 Quantitative Precipitation Estimates over the Southern Ocean Using Shipborne Observations

Abstract Recent voyages of the Australian R/V Investigator across the remote Southern Ocean have provided unprecedented observations of precipitation made with both an Ocean Rainfall and Ice-Phase Precipitation Measurement Network (OceanRAIN) maritime disdrometer and a dual-polarization C-band weather radar (OceanPOL). This present study employs these observations to evaluate the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) and the fifth major global reanalysis produced by ECMWF (ERA5) precipitation products. Working at a resolution of 60 min and 0.25° (∼25 km), light rain and drizzle are most frequently observed across the region. The IMERG product overestimated precipitation intensity when evaluated against the OceanRAIN but captured the frequency of occurrence well. Looking at the synoptic/process scale, IMERG was found to be the least accurate (overestimated intensity) under warm-frontal and high-latitude cyclone conditions, where multilayer clouds were commonly present. Under postfrontal conditions, IMERG underestimated the precipitation frequency. In comparison, ERA5’s skill was more consistent across various synoptic conditions, except for high pressure conditions where the precipitation frequency (intensity) was highly overestimated (underestimated). Using the OceanPOL radar, an area-to-area analysis (fractional skill score) finds that ERA5 has greater skill than IMERG. There is little agreement in the phase classification between the OceanRAIN disdrometer, IMERG, and ERA5. The comparisons are complicated by the various assumptions for phase classification in the different datasets. Significance Statement Our best quantitative estimates of precipitation over the remote, pristine Southern Ocean (SO) continue to suffer from a high degree of uncertainty, with large differences present among satellite-based and reanalysis products. New instrumentation on the R/V Investigator, specifically a dual-polarization C-band weather radar (OceanPOL) and a maritime disdrometer (OceanRAIN), provide unprecedented high-quality observations of precipitation across the SO that will aid in improving precipitation estimates in this region. We use these observations to evaluate the IMERG and ERA5 precipitation products. We find that, in general, IMERG overestimated precipitation intensity, but captured the frequency of occurrence well. In comparison, ERA5 was found to overestimate the frequency of precipitation. Using the OceanPOL radar, an area-to-area analysis finds that ERA5 has greater skill than IMERG.

Comparative Application of Rain Gauge, Ground- and Space-Borne Radar Precipitation Products for Flood Simulations in a Dam Watershed in South Korea

This study presents a comparative analysis of flood simulations using rain gauge, ground- and space-borne radar precipitation products. The objectives are to assess the effectiveness of two radar-based data sources, namely the Radar-AWS Rainrates (RAR) and Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG), in a dam watershed with gauge observations, and explore the modeling feasibility of integrating the half-hourly IMERG satellite precipitation in regions with ungauged or limited observational area. Two types of HEC-HMS models were developed, considering areal-averaged and spatially distributed gridded data simulations utilizing eight selected storm events. The findings indicate that the RAR data, although slightly underestimate precipitation compared to the gauge measurements, accurately reproduce hydrographs without requiring parameter adjustments (Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency, ENS, 0.863; coefficient of determination, R2, 0.873; and percent bias, PBIAS, 7.49%). On the other hand, flood simulations using the IMERG data exhibit lower model efficiency and correlation, suggesting potential limitations in ungauged watersheds. Nevertheless, with available discharge data, the calibrated model using IMERG shows prospects for utilization (ENS 0.776, R2 0.787, and PBIAS 7.15%). Overall, this research offers insights into flood simulations using various precipitation products, emphasizing the significance of reliable discharge data for accurate hydrological modeling and the need for further evaluation of the IMERG product.

Performance Assessment of Chirps, Persiann – CDR, IMERG, and TMPA Precipitation Products across Nepal

The observation of hydrological as well as meteorological data is very essential for any kind of hydraulic and hydrological study. In Nepal, due to the significant variation of topography and climatic characteristics as well it is necessary to establish the meteorological stations densely, here only 231 meteorological stations are available and are handled by government organizations Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM). Even though, due to many limitations, the satellite data is very useful for the water resources study. There are so many satellite products available but the performance of these products varies from place to place. In this study, the performance of four satellite products i.e., Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS), Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks (PERSIANN-CDR), Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG), and TRMM Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) all over Nepal are evaluated with different elevation bands. The performance of each product is evaluated by Probability of Detection (POD), Critical Success Index (CSI), Frequency Bias Index (FBI), False Alarm Ratio (FAR), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), and Percentage Bias (PBIAS). After analysis of each product, the PERSIANN-CDR data set gives a reasonable performance for all elevation bands after bias correction.

Assessment of Three GPM IMERG Products for GIS-Based Tropical Flood Hazard Mapping Using Analytical Hierarchy Process

The use of satellite precipitation products can overcome the limitations of rain gauges in flood hazard mapping for mitigation purposes. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the capabilities of three global precipitation measurement (GPM) integrated multisatellite retrievals for GPM (IMERG) products in tropical flood hazard mapping in the Kelantan River Basin (KRB), Malaysia, using the GIS-based analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method. In addition to the precipitation factor, another eleven factors that contribute to flooding in the KRB were included in the AHP method. The findings demonstrated that the spatial pattern and percentage area affected by floods simulated under the IMERG-Early (IMERG-E), IMERG-Late (IMERG-L), and IMERG-Final (IMERG-F) products did not differ significantly. The receiver operating characteristics curve analysis showed that all three IMERG products performed well in generating flood hazard maps, with area under the curve values greater than 0.8. Almost all the recorded historical floods were placed in the moderate-to-very-high flood hazard areas, with only 1–2% found in the low flood hazard areas. The middle and lower parts of the KRB were identified as regions of “very high” and “high” hazard levels that require particular attention from local stakeholders.

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

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.

Evaluation and Error Decomposition of IMERG Product Based on Multiple Satellite Sensors

The Integrated Multisatellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) is designed to derive precipitation by merging data from all the passive microwave (PMW) and infrared (IR) sensors. While the input source errors originating from the PMW and IR sensors are important, their structure, characteristics, and algorithm improvement remain unclear. Our study utilized a four-component error decomposition (4CED) method and a systematic and random error decomposition method to evaluate the detectability of IMERG dataset and identify the precipitation errors based on the multi-sensors. The 30 min data from 30 precipitation stations in the Tunxi Watershed were used to evaluate the IMERG data from 2018 to 2020. The input source includes five types of PMW sensors and IR instruments. The results show that the sample ratio for IR (Morph, IR + Morph, and IR only) is much higher than that for PMW (AMSR2, SSMIS, GMI, MHS, and ATMS), with a ratio of 72.8% for IR sources and a ratio of 27.2% for PMW sources. The high false ratio of the IR sensor leads to poor detectability performance of the false alarm ratio (FAR, 0.5854), critical success index (CSI, 0.3014), and Brier score (BS, 0.1126). As for the 4CED, Morph and Morph + IR have a large magnitude of high total bias (TB), hit overestimate bias (HOB), hit underestimate bias (HUB), false bias (FB), and miss bias (MB), which is related to the prediction ability and sample size. In addition, systematic error is the prominent component for AMSR2, SSMIS, GMI, and Morph + IR, indicating some inherent error (retrieval algorithm) that needs to be removed. These findings can support improving the retrieval algorithm and reducing errors in the IMERG dataset.

Assessment of GPM IMERG and GSMaP daily precipitation products and their utility in droughts and floods monitoring across Xijiang River Basin

The recent increasing concerns about floods and droughts have brought up a pressing need for high-precision and high-resolution precipitation records. As representative satellite precipitation products (SPPs) in Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) era, the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) product and the Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP) are widely acknowledged as reliable alternative sources. A quantitative evaluation of these new products is of great importance before their extended applications. This study comprehensively assesses the statistical performance and the application potential of IMERG (IMERG-Early, IMERG-Late and IMERG-Final) and GSMaP (GSMaP-NRT, GSMaP-Gauge-NRT, GSMaP-Gauge) products over Xijiang River Basin during 2009–2018 at a daily timescale. Both IMERG and GSMaP products have their own advantages. The results indicate that (1) at the grid scale, the IMERG-Final exhibits the highest correlation with gauge-based precipitation data while GSMaP-Gauge yields the lowest relative mean error. IMERG-Early and IMERG-Late have superiorities in almost all evaluation metrics relative to GSMaP-NRT and GSMaP-Gauge-NRT. (2) The temporal performance in specific months visually demonstrates that GSMaP-Gauge has a lower precipitation detection capacity in wet seasons due to a higher FAR, in opposite to other SPPs. (3) The precipitation detection ability of SPPs varies largely with different precipitation intensities. GSMaP-Gauge can identify nearly 90% rainfall events at the lowest threshold of 1 mm/day, but it tends to overestimate the non- and slight precipitation events up to small or moderate classes and highly underestimate precipitation amount of strong events. At extreme precipitation intensity (≥50 mm/day), >50% of extreme precipitation events were missed by SPPs resulting in unsatisfactory PODs below 0.5. (4) For meteorological drought monitoring, IMERG-Final exhibits highest CCs in all inspected timescales, succeed by GSMaP-Gauge. IMERG-Early and IMERG-Late still perform better than near-real-time GSMaPs in drought research. (5) In the hydrological simulation with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), GSMaP-Gauge-simulation shows the best accuracy regardless of wet or dry seasons with highest NSEs of 0.64 and 0.73, respectively. All near-real-time SPPs present an unacceptable hydrological utility and an underestimation of streamflow in dry seasons. The systematic evaluation of extreme streamflow indices highlights that of the four timelier products, IMERG-Early is most reliable in capturing extreme streamflow. GSMaP-NRT tends to exaggerate the flood magnitude and could be used as reference in estimating severe and continuous floods.

Performance evaluation of IMERG products based on the extremely heavy rainstorm event (2021) once in a thousand years in Henan, China

Henan, a province of central China, experienced rainfall at the level of rare extremely heavy rainstorms once in a millennium during the period from July 17th to July 23rd, 2021. Based on ground-based rainfall data from 116 gauges, the performance of Global Rainfall Measurement (GPM) Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) products (IMERG-Early run (IMERG-E), IMERG-Late run (IMERG-L), and IMERG-Final run (IMERG-F)) were evaluated from the seven-day rainfall change process, the hourly rainfall change process on July 20th and the six traditional indexes. Results indicate that the overall performance of IMERG-F is the best, relative bias (RB) is −0.03 and correlation coefficient (CC) is 0.51. IMERG-L (RB, −0.09; CC, 0.49) is very close to IMERG-F More outstandingly, in the three days of 19th, 20th and 21st, RB of IMERG-L per day is −0.01, 0.02, and − 0.13, respectively. IMERG-L shows a greater ability to capture extreme short-duration heavy rainfall in the peak period compared to the other two products. Since weak rainfall overestimation coefficient (WROC) is >0.5, it can be concluded that RB of excessively overestimated gauges are >100% mainly determined by the overestimation during weak rainfall; Because of overestimation coefficient (OC) and weak rainfall coefficient (WRC), there is an obvious error trend that gauges with weak rainfall (≤ 1 mm/h) are easily overestimated and gauges with non-weak rainfall (> 1 mm/h) are easily underestimated; IMERG-F has higher entire accuracy and reduces the error trend because of the large number of PMW estimates.

Lifetime prediction of turbine blades using global precipitation products from satellites

Abstract. The growing size of wind turbines leads to extremely high tip speeds when the blades are rotating. The blades are prone to leading edge erosion when raindrops hit the blades at such high speeds, and blade damage will eventually affect the power production until repair or replacement of the blade is performed. Since these actions come with a high cost, it is relevant to estimate the blade lifetime for a given wind farm site prior to wind farm construction. Modeling tools for blade lifetime prediction require input time series of rainfall intensities and wind speeds in addition to a turbine-specific tip speed curve. In this paper, we investigate the suitability of satellite-based precipitation data from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission in the context of blade lifetime prediction. We first evaluate satellite-based rainfall intensities from the Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) final product against in situ observations at 18 weather stations located in Germany, Denmark, and Portugal. We then use the satellite and in situ rainfall intensities as input to a model for blade lifetime prediction, together with the wind speeds measured at the stations. We find that blade lifetimes estimated with rainfall intensities from satellites and in situ observations are in good agreement despite the very different nature of the observation methods and the fact that IMERG products have a 30 min temporal resolution, whereas in situ stations deliver 10 min accumulated rainfall intensities. Our results indicate that the wind speed has a large impact on the estimated blade lifetimes. Inland stations show significantly longer blade lifetimes than coastal stations, which are more exposed to high mean wind speeds. One station located in mountainous terrain shows large differences between rainfall intensities and blade lifetimes based on satellite and in situ observations. IMERG rainfall products are known to have a limited accuracy in mountainous terrain. Our analyses also confirm that IMERG overestimates light rainfall and underestimates heavy rainfall. Given that networks of in situ stations have large gaps over the oceans, there is a potential for utilizing rainfall products from satellites to estimate and map blade lifetimes. This is useful as more wind power is installed offshore including floating installations very far from the coast.

Performance Assessment of GPM IMERG Products at Different Time Resolutions, Climatic Areas and Topographic Conditions in Catalonia

Quantitative Precipitation Estimates (QPEs) from the Integrated Multisatellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) provide crucial information about the spatio-temporal distribution of precipitation in semiarid regions with complex orography, such as Catalonia (NE Spain). The network of automatic weather stations of the Meteorological Service of Catalonia is used to assess the performance of three IMERG products (Early, Late and Final) at different time scales, ranging from yearly to sub-daily periods. The analysis at a half-hourly scale also considered three different orographic features (valley, flat and ridgetop), diverse climatic conditions (BSk, Csa, Cf and Df) and five categories related to rainfall intensity (light, moderate, intense, very intense and torrential). While IMERG_E and IMERG_L overestimate precipitation, IMERG_F reduces the error at all temporal scales. However, the calibration to which a Final run is subjected causes underestimation regardless in some areas, such as the Pyrenees mountains. The proportion of false alarms is a problem for IMERG, especially during the summer, mainly associated with the detection of false precipitation in the form of light rainfall. At sub-daily scales, IMERG showed high bias and very low correlation values, indicating the remaining challenge for satellite sensors to estimate precipitation at high temporal resolution. This behaviour was more evident in flat areas and cold semi-arid climates, wherein overestimates of more than 30% were found. In contrast, rainfall classified as very heavy and torrential showed significant underestimates, higher than 80%, reflecting the inability of IMERG to detect extreme sub-daily precipitation events.

Evaluation of IMERG Precipitation Products in the Southeast Costal Urban Region of China

The intensification of extreme precipitation has aggravated urban flood disasters, which makes timely and reliable precipitation information urgently needed. As the high-quality and widely used satellite precipitation products, Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG), have not been well investigated in coastal urban agglomerations where damages from precipitation-related disasters are more severe. With precipitation measurements from local high-density gauge stations, this study evaluates three IMERG runs (IMERG ER, IMERG LR, and IMERG FR) in the southeast coastal urban region of China. The evaluation shows that the three IMERG products severely overestimate weak precipitation and underestimate heavy precipitation. Among the three runs, the post-corrected IMERG FR does not show a substantial improvement compared to the near-real-time IMERG ER and IMERG LR. The performance of IMERG varies depending on the precipitation pattern and intensity, with the best estimation ability occurring in the coastal urban region in summer and in the northern forests in winter. Due to the year-round urban effect on precipitation variability, IMERG cannot detect precipitation events well in the central high-density urban areas, and has its best detection ability on cultivated lands in summer and forests in winter. Within the urban agglomeration, IMERG shows a poorer performance in areas with higher urbanization levels. Thus, the IMERG products for coastal urban areas need considerable improvements, such as regionalized segmental corrections based on precipitation intensity and the adjustment of short-duration estimates by daily or sub-daily precipitation measurements.

Validation of IMERG Oceanic Precipitation over Kwajalein

The integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) Version V05B and V06B precipitation products from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission are validated against ground-based observations from the Kwajalein Polarimetric S-band Weather Radar (KPOL) deployed at Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean. Such a validation is particularly important as comprehensive surface measurements over the oceans are practically infeasible, which hampers the identification of possible errors, and improvement of future versions of IMERG and other satellite-based retrieval algorithms. The V05B and V06B IMERG products are validated at their native 0.1°, 30 min resolution from 2014 to 2018 based on both volumetric and categorical metrics. This validation study indicates that precipitation rates from both IMERG V05B and V06B are underestimated with respect to radar surface estimates, but the underestimation is much reduced from V05B to V06B. IMERG V06B outperforms V05B with reduced systematic bias and improved precipitation detectability. The IMERG performance is further traced back to its individual sensors and morphing-based algorithms. The overall underestimation in V05B is mainly driven by the negative relative biases from morphing-based algorithms which are largely corrected in V06B. Imagers perform generally better than sounders because of the usage of low-frequency channels in imagers which can better detect emission signals by the hydrometeors. Among imagers, the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer Version 2 (AMSR2) are the best, followed by Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS). Among sounders, the Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) is the best, followed by Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) and the Sounder for Atmospheric Profiling of Humidity in the Intertropics by Radiometry (SAPHIR) for V06B. Among all categories, morph-only and IR + morph only perform better than SAPHIR. SAPHIR shows the worst performance among all categories, likely due to its limited channel selection. It is envisaged that these results will improve our understanding of IMERG performance over oceans and aid in the improvement of future versions of IMERG.

Capability of GPM IMERG Products for Extreme Precipitation Analysis over the Indonesian Maritime Continent

Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) data have been widely used to analyze extreme precipitation, but the data have never been validated for the Indonesian Maritime Continent (IMC). This study evaluated the capability of IMERG Early (E), Late (L), and Final (F) data to observe extreme rain in the IMC using the rain gauge data within five years (2016–2020). The capability of IMERG in the observation of the extreme rain index was evaluated using Kling–Gupta efficiency (KGE) matrices. The IMERG well captured climatologic characteristics of the index of annual total precipitation (PRCPTOT), number of wet days (R85p), number of very wet days (R95p), number of rainy days (R1mm), number of heavy rain days (R10mm), number of very heavy rain days (R20mm), consecutive dry days (CDD), and max 5-day precipitation (RX5day), indicated by KGE value >0.4. Moderate performance (KGE = 0–0.4) was shown in the index of the amount of very extremely wet days (R99p), the number of extremely heavy precipitation days (R50mm), max 1-day precipitation (RX1day), and Simple Daily Intensity Index (SDII). Furthermore, low performance of IMERG (KGE < 0) was observed in the consecutive wet days (CWDs) index. Of the 13 extreme rain indices evaluated, IMERG underestimated and overestimated precipitation of nine and four indexes, respectively. IMERG tends to overestimate precipitation of indexes related to low rainfall intensity (e.g., R1mm). The highest overestimation was observed in the CWD index, related to the overestimation of light rainfall and the high false alarm ratio (FAR) from the daily data. For all indices of extreme rain, IMERG showed good capability to observe extreme rain variability in the IMC. Overall, IMERG-L showed a better capability than IMERG-E and -F but with an insignificant difference. Thus, the data of IMERG-E and IMERG-L, with a more rapid latency than IMERG-F, have great potential to be used for extreme rain observation and flood modeling in the IMC.

From TRMM to GPM, how do improvements of post/near-real-time satellite precipitation estimates manifest?

With the end of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) era, its successor of Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) aims to provide a new generation of satellite precipitation estimates (SPE) with higher spatiotemporal resolution and wider spatial coverage. As the representative precipitation retrieval algorithms for GPM and TRMM eras, it is necessary to compare the Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) with the TRMM Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) to investigate the improvements of SPEs from TRMM to GPM. This study analyzes the post/near-real-time SPEs from TMPA and IMERG over Mainland China from April 2014 to March 2018 at daily scale, using precipitation observations from 510 meteorological stations as reference. A very comprehensive evaluation system, which contains four indicators of continuous metrics, categorical metrics, error components, and systematic and random errors is adopted in this study. Besides, four patterns with spatial distribution, temporal pattern, precipitation intensity distribution, and overall metrics are applied to illustrate each indicator's performance. The results show that IMERG products have lower RB and RMSE and higher CC than TMPA and greatly reduce the three error components (hit bias, missed precipitation, and false precipitation). Furthermore, IMERG products present a higher capability to capture the precipitation events correctly and generally have lower systematic and random errors than TMPA products. However, there are still rooms for IMERG products to improve, such as higher false alarm ratio (FAR) and more false precipitation of IMERG products at relatively low rain rates, the 25% higher systematic error of IMERG-E (IMERG “Early Run” near-real-time SPE) compared to TMPA-RT (TMPA near-real-time SPE). In addition, we find the gauge adjustment from GPCC is not a very effective way to improve the detecting capability and reduce the systematic errors for near-real-time SPEs over Mainland China. This study provides some valuable information on the transition from TMPA to IMERG, which may advance the algorithm's development and the hydrometeorological applications.

A Comprehensive Evaluation of Near-Real-Time and Research Products of IMERG Precipitation over India for the Southwest Monsoon Period

Precipitation is one of the integral components of the global hydrological cycle. Accurate estimation of precipitation is vital for numerous applications ranging from hydrology to climatology. Following the launch of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory, the Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) precipitation product was released. The IMERG provides global precipitation estimates at finer spatiotemporal resolution (e.g., 0.1°/half-hourly) and has shown to be better than other contemporary multi-satellite precipitation products over most parts of the globe. In this study, near-real-time and research products of IMERG have been extensively evaluated against a daily rain-gauge-based precipitation dataset over India for the southwest monsoon period. In addition, the current version 6 of the IMERG research product or Final Run (IMERG-F V6) has been compared with its predecessor, version 5, and error characteristics of IMERG-F V6 for pre-GPM and GPM periods have been assessed. The spatial distributions of different error metrics over the country show that both near-real-time IMERG products (e.g., Early and Late Runs) have similar error characteristics in precipitation estimation. However, near-real-time products have larger errors than IMERG-F V6, as expected. Bias in all-India daily mean rainfall in the near-real-time IMERG products is about 3–4 times larger than research product. Both V5 and V6 IMERG-F estimates show similar error characteristics in daily precipitation estimation over the country. Similarly, both near-real-time and research products show similar characteristics in the detection of rainy days. However, IMERG-F V6 exhibits better performance in precipitation estimation and detection of rainy days during the GPM period (2014–2017) than the pre-GPM period (2010–2013). The contribution of different rainfall intensity intervals to total monsoon rainfall is captured well by the IMERG estimates. Furthermore, results reveal that IMERG estimates under-detect and overestimate light rainfall intensity of 2.5–7.5 mm day−1, which needs to be improved in the next release. The results of this study would be beneficial for end-users to integrate this multi-satellite product in any specific application.

Daily Precipitation Frequency Distributions Impacts on Land-Surface Simulations of CONUS

Many precipitation-driven data products from land data assimilation systems support assessments of droughts, floods, and other societally-relevant land-surface processes. The accumulated precipitation used as input to these products has a significant impact on water budgets; however, the effects of daily distribution of precipitation on these products are not well known. A comparison of the Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) and Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Stations version 2 (CHIRPS2) rainfall products over the continental United States (CONUS) was performed to quantify the impacts of the daily distribution of precipitation on biases and errors in soil moisture, runoff, and evapotranspiration (ET). Since the total accumulated precipitation between the IMERG and CHIRPS product differed, a third precipitation product, CHIRPS-to-IMERG (CHtoIM), was produced that used CHIRPS2 accumulated precipitation totals and the daily precipitation frequency distribution of IMERG. This new product supported a controlled analysis of the impact of precipitation frequency distribution on simulated hydrological fields. The CHtoIM had higher occurrences of precipitation in the 0–5 mm day−1 range, with a lower occurrence of dry days, which decreased soil moisture and surface runoff in the land-surface model. The surface soil layer had a tendency to reach saturation more often in the CHIRPS2 simulations, where the number of moderate to heavy precipitation days (>5 mm day−1) was increased. Using the blended CHtoIM product as input reduced errors in surface soil moisture by 5–15% when compared to Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) data. Similarly, ET errors were also slightly decreased (~2%) when compared to SSEBop data. Moderate changes in daily precipitation distributions had a quantifiable impact on soil moisture, runoff, and ET. These changes usually improved the model when compared to other modeled and observational datasets, but the magnitude of the improvements varied by region and time of year.

Investigating Various Products of IMERG for Precipitation Retrieval over Surfaces with and without Snow and Ice Cover

Precipitation rate from various products of the integrated multisatellite retrievals for GPM (IMERG) and passive microwave (PMW) sensors are assessed with respect to near-surface wet-bulb temperature (Tw), precipitation intensity, and surface type (i.e., with and without snow and ice on the surface) over the contiguous United States (CONUS) and using ground radar product as reference precipitation. IMERG products include precipitation estimates from infrared (IR), combined PMW, and combination of PMW and IR. It was found that precipitation estimates from PMW products generally have higher skills than IR over snow- and ice-free surfaces. Over snow- and ice-covered surfaces: (1) most PMW products show higher correlation coefficients than IR, (2) at cold temperatures (e.g., Tw < −10 °C), PMW products tend to underestimate and IR product shows large overestimations, and (3) PMW sensors show higher overall skill in detecting precipitation occurrence, but not necessarily at very cold Tw. The results suggest that the current approach of IMERG (i.e., replacing PMW with IR precipitation estimates over snow- and ice-surfaces) may need to be revised.