الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Water resources planning and management is generally based on precipitation data which is the most important parameter in characterizing the water cycle. In the Nile Basin, conventional rain gauges are normally sparse; thus, satellite-based rainfall estimates have become vital for hydrometeorological studies in the basin. However, estimates from satellite rainfall products are prone to bias and need to be validated in this region. In this study, four widely used high-resolution satellite rainfall products (TRMM-3B42RT, PERSIANN-CCS, GSMAP-NRT, and CHIRPS-V2) were evaluated against monthly ground-based observations from 44 stations over the Upper Blue Nile Basin during the period (2003-2013). Moreover, satellite-based rainfall estimates from the products were adjusted by two bias correction methods: Linear scaling (LS), and Power transformation (PT). The evaluation process is based on several standard statistical criteria on a monthly and annual scale in order to assess the ability of satellite products and bias correction methods to capture rainfall characteristics in this area. The results show that rainfall estimates from CHIRPS-V2, PERSIANN-CCS, and TRMM-3B42RT products have a reliable agreement with ground measurements in estimating and detecting rainfall events on a monthly and annual scale. Overall, the performance of CHIRPS-V2 is the best and GSMAP-NRT is the worst product. Regarding bias correction, LS and PT significantly improved estimates of all products, with LS slightly outperforming. The findings of this study show the importance of the evaluation and adjustment of the satellite rainfall products for use in different hydrological applications in the Upper Blue Nile Basin. |