In most Asian high mountain areas, ground-based observations of precipitation are sparse. It is urgent to assess and apply satellite precipitation products (SPPs). In recent years, relatively dense rain gauges have been established in five tributaries in Lhasa. Therefore, based on high-density rain gauges, two SPPs (GPM IMERG V05B, TRMM 3B42V7) were evaluated at the grid, region, and time scales with different statistical indices in the five tributaries. Besides, the dependence of SPPs performances on the precipitation intensities, elevation, and slope was investigated. The results indicate that: (1) both 3B42V7 and IMERG showed similarly low correlation with rain gauges at daily scale and high correlation at monthly scale, but 3B42V7 tended to suffer from systematic overestimation of monthly precipitation; (2) IMERG product outperformed 3B42V7 except for obvious overestimation of trace precipitation (0.1~1 mm day−1) and underestimation of torrential precipitation (>50 mm day−1); (3) the precipitation over the five tributaries showed significant spatial variability with difference of characteristic values (e.g., average daily precipitation) more than 20% in some IMERG grids and most 3B42V7 grids; (4) elevation had an obvious effect on the accuracy of 3B42V7 and IMERG, and the accuracy of the two SPPs decreased significantly with the increase of elevation.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.