Evaluation of remotely sensed rainfall products over Central Africa

Authors:Camberlin, PierreBarraud, GeoffreyBigot, SylvainDewitte, OlivierImwangana, Fils MakanzuMateso, Jean-Claude MakiMartiny, NadegeMonsieurs, EliseMoron, VincentPellarin, ThierryPhilippon, NathalieSahani, MuhindoSamba, Gaston

Source:QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY

Volume:145

DOI:10.1002/qj.3547

Published:2019

Document Type:Article

Abstract:An intercomparison of seven gridded rainfall products incorporating satellite data (ARC, CHIRPS, CMORPH, PERSIANN, TAPEER, TARCAT, TMPA) is carried out over Central Africa, by evaluating them against three observed datasets: (a) the WaTFor database, consisting of 293 (monthly records) and 154 (daily records) rain-gauge stations collected from global datasets, national meteorological services and monitoring projects, (b) the WorldClim v2 gridded database, and (c) a set of stations expanded from the FAOCLIM network, these two latter sets describing climate normals. All products fairly well reproduce the mean rainfall regimes and the spatial patterns of mean annual rainfall, although with some discrepancies in the east-west gradient. A systematic positive bias is found in the CMORPH product. Despite its lower spatial resolution, TAPEER shows reasonable skills. When considering daily rainfall amounts, TMPA shows best skills, followed by CMORPH, but over the central part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, TARCAT is amongst the best products. Skills ranking is however different at the interannual time-scale, with CHIRPS and TMPA performing best, though PERSIANN has comparable skills when only fully independent stations are used as reference. A preliminary study of Southern Hemisphere dry season variability, from the example of Kinshasa, shows that it is a difficult variable to capture with satellite-based rainfall products. Users should still be careful when using any product in the most data-sparse regions, especially for trend assessment.

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Reprint Address:Camberlin, P (corresponding author), Univ Bourgogne Franche Comte, CNRS, UMR 6282, Ctr Rech Climatol Biogeosci, F-21000 Dijon, France.

Addresses:[Camberlin, Pierre; Barraud, Geoffrey; Martiny, Nadege] Univ Bourgogne Franche Comte, Ctr Rech Climatol Biogeosci, Dijon, France. [Bigot, Sylvain; Pellarin, Thierry; Philippon, Nathalie] Univ Grenoble Alpes, Inst Geosci Environm, Grenoble, France. [Dewitte, Olivier; Monsieurs, Elise] Royal Museum Cent Africa, Tervuren, Belgium. [Imwangana, Fils Makanzu] Univ Kinshasa, Fac Sci, Dept Geosci, Unite Rech & Format Gest Risques Nat, Kinshasa, DEM REP CONGO. [Mateso, Jean-Claude Maki] Ctr Rech Sci Nat, Dept Geophys, Lwiro, DEM REP CONGO. [Mateso, Jean-Claude Maki] Catholic Univ Louvain, Fac Biosci Engn, Louvain La Neuve, Belgium. [Mateso, Jean-Claude Maki] Catholic Univ Louvain, Earth Life Inst, Louvain La Neuve, Belgium. [Monsieurs, Elise] Univ Liege, Dept Geog, Liege, Belgium. [Monsieurs, Elise] FNRS, FRS, Brussels, Belgium. [Moron, Vincent] Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, INRA, CEREGE,IRD,Coll France, Aix En Provence, France. [Sahani, Muhindo] Univ Catholique Graben, Butembo, DEM REP CONGO. [Samba, Gaston] Univ Marien Ngouabi, Ecole Normale Super, Ctr Rech & Etud Environm, Brazzaville, Rep Congo.

E-mail Addresses:pierre.camberlin@u-bourgogne.fr

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