Evaluation of TAMSAT satellite rainfall estimates for southern Africa: An inter-product comparison study

Publication date: Available online 20 February 2019Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/CAuthor(s): Seyama Eric S, Mhosisi Masocha, Timothy DubeAbstractIn developing countries with a paucity of direct rainfall measuring systems on the ground, satellite remote sensing is increasingly being relied upon as a means through which national governmental response and future strategy to manage natural disasters such as drought and flooding are decided upon. The aim of this study was to assess the performance of the Tropical Applications of Meteorology Using Satellite Data and Ground-Based Observations (TAMSAT) monthly rainfall dataset for southern Africa by comparing it to two widely used stable global rainfall datasets, the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) and the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) datasets. Using rainfall records for the period 1984-2010, four statistical measures namely, the correlation coefficient, the root mean square error (RMSE), relative bias, mean absolute deviation and the Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency index were calculated to facilitate pair-wise comparisons. This inter-product comparison study found a good agreement between TAMSAT satellite rainfall and the two global rainfall products with regard to the spatial and temporal representation of monthly rainfall over the region. However, it was found that TAMSAT consistently provides lower monthly rainfall estimates compared to both GPCC and GPCP rainfall estimates over...

Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - February 21, 2019 Category: Science Source Type: research