Performance evaluation of multiple satellite rainfall data sets in central highlands of Abbay Basin, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

This study evaluates four satellite-based precipitation datasets with gauged rainfall observations at a daily and wet season time scales. Satellite Precipitation Estimators from Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation Stations (CHIRPSv2), the Climate prediction center (CPC) morphing technique (CMORPH), the Integrated Multi-satellite Retrieval for GPM (IMERG-06) and Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks Cloud Classification System (PERSSIANN-CCS) were used. Categorical and continuous statistical techniques were applied to evaluate the detection and estimation ability of SPEs. Among the SPEs, CMORPH was superior, 0.90 and followed by IMERG-06, 0.82 in the Probability of detection (POD), Critical success index (CSI), 0.74 and 0.70 and Accuracy, 0.75 and 0.72 at wet season, respectively. The result of bias ratio showed underestimation for all SPEs at wet season and daily time scale. The comparison of SPEs in terms of RMSE indicated that IMERG-06 was better, 75.9 followed by CMORPH, 86.0. In terms of Relative bias (RBias), IMERG-06 was the second next to CHIRPSv2. On the other hand, IMERG-06 had better RMSE at JJAS and daily time scale. Overall, the findings of this evaluation study showed the capacity of IMERG-06 product could be reliable rainfall data sources for climate and hydrological analysis of central highlands of Abbay Basin.

KEYWORDS:

• Abbay Basin
• CHIRPSv2
• CMORPH
• IMERG-06
• PERSIANN-CCS
• SPE

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the National Meteorology Agency of Ethiopia (NMA) for providing the study with long-term gauge-based daily rainfall data. We are grateful to Bahir Dar University for providing the first author a study leave.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Availability of data statement

The data used for analysis for the current study are available up on the corresponding author and National Meteorological Station Agency (NMA) on reasonable request.