Satellite Rainfall Estimates Over South America – Possible Applicability to the Water Management of Large Watersheds¹

Abstract

Pereira Filho, Augusto J., Richard E. Carbone, John E. Janowiak, Phillip Arkin, Robert Joyce, Ricardo Hallak, and Camila G.M. Ramos, 2010. Satellite Rainfall Estimates Over South America – Possible Applicability to the Water Management of Large Watersheds. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(2):344‐360. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2009.00406.x Abstract: This work analyzes high‐resolution precipitation data from satellite‐derived rainfall estimates over South America, especially over the Amazon Basin. The goal is to examine whether satellite‐derived precipitation estimates can be used in hydrology and in the management of larger watersheds of South America. High spatial‐temporal resolution precipitation estimates obtained with the CMORPH method serve this purpose while providing an additional hydrometeorological perspective on the convective regime over South America and its predictability. CMORPH rainfall estimates at 8‐km spatial resolution for 2003 and 2004 were compared with available rain gauge measurements at daily, monthly, and yearly accumulation time scales. The results show the correlation between satellite‐derived and gauge‐measured precipitation increases with accumulation period from daily to monthly, especially during the rainy season. Time‐longitude diagrams of CMORPH hourly rainfall show the genesis, strength, longevity, and phase speed of convective systems. Hourly rainfall analyses indicate that convection over the Amazon region is often more organized than previously thought, thus inferring that basin scale predictions of rainfall for hydrological and water management purposes have the potential to become more skillful. Flow estimates based on CMORPH and the rain gauge network are compared to long‐term observed average flow. The results suggest this satellite‐based rainfall estimation technique has considerable utility. Other statistics for monthly accumulations also suggest CMORPH can be an important source of rainfall information at smaller spatial scales where in situ observations are lacking.

Temporal and spatial evaluation of satellite-based rainfall estimates across the complex topographical and climatic gradients of Chile

“…10). In line with previous work by Scheel et al (2011) andPereira Filho et al (2010), better performance was obtained for monthly timescales compared to the daily scale. Unexpected, however, was the fact that the annual scale resulted worse compared to the daily scale, in particular for CMORPH and PERSIANN-CCS-Adj, which was due to the amplification of small systematic biases at the daily timescale when aggregated into the annual one, passing from 2922 days to only 8 annual values.…”

“…CMORPH has been reported to outperform other SRE products over the Australian tropics Joyce et al, 2004), central United States (Behrangi et al, 2011) and Europe (Kidd et al, 2012). As many SRE products that do not rely on rainfall gauge data, CMORPH tends to overestimate the amount of precipitation during wet periods (Behrangi et al, 2011). Pereira Filho et al (2010 compared CMORPH rainfall estimates over South America (Amazon Basin), at 8 km spatial resolution, with available rainfall observations at daily, monthly, and yearly timescales.…”

Consideration of Water Uses for Its Sustainable Management, the Case of Issyk-Kul Lake, Kyrgyzstan

“…This expresses increasing food demand, household and other development activities which require availability and access to water. For the problem to be dealt with, it is proposed to interchangeably use the lake and rainfall water [42,43]. Despite the fact that integrated water resources management action is being taken, it is still mandatory to consider climate change, global population growth and other increasing water Figure 5.…”

“…This expresses increasing food demand, household and other development activities which require availability and access to water. For the problem to be dealt with, it is proposed to interchangeably use the lake and rainfall water [42,43]. …”

Temporal and Spatial Assessment of Four Satellite Rainfall Estimates over French Guiana and North Brazil

“…A number of them showed that low intensities are overestimated and high intensities are underestimated in Africa [4,9,10], in United States [11,12], in South America [13,14] and in Asia [15][16][17][18]. In terms of seasonality, products are better in the rainy season [4,18,19] or in summer [20][21][22][23][24], when the precipitation is warm and convective. These comparisons based on the intensity and seasonality criteria have been widely studied, and the obtained results confirm the generalities previously validated by many authors.…”