Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11765/11691
The contribution of rain gauges in the calibration of the IMERG product: results from the first validation over Spain
Title: The contribution of rain gauges in the calibration of the IMERG product: results from the first validation over Spain
Authors: Tapiador, Francisco J.Navarro Martínez, AndrésGarcía Ortega, EduardoMerino Suances, AndrésSánchez Gómez, José LuisMarcos Martín, Cecilia ORCID RESEARCHERID Autor AEMETKummerow, Christian
Keywords: Global Precipitation Measurement; Gauge data; IMERG; Precipitation
Issue Date: 2020
Publisher: American Meteorological Society
Citation: Journal of Hydrometeorology. 2020, 21, p. 161–182
Publisher version: https://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-19-0116.1
Abstract: After 5 years in orbit, the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission has produced enough qualitycontrolled data to allow the first validation of their precipitation estimates over Spain. High-quality gauge data from the meteorological network of the Spanish Meteorological Agency (AEMET) are used here to validate Integrated Multisatellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) level 3 estimates of surface precipitation. While aggregated values compare notably well, some differences are found in specific locations. The research investigates the sources of these discrepancies, which are found to be primarily related to the underestimation of orographic precipitation in the IMERG satellite products, as well as to the number of available gauges in the GPCC gauges used for calibrating IMERG. It is shown that IMERG provides suboptimal performance in poorly instrumented areas but that the estimate improves greatly when at least one rain gauge is available for the calibration process. A main, generally applicable conclusion from this research is that the IMERG satellite-derived estimates of precipitation are more useful (r2 > 0.80) for hydrology than interpolated fields of rain gauge measurements when at least one gauge is available for calibrating the satellite product. If no rain gauges were used, the results are still useful but with decreased mean performance (r2 ~ 0.65). Such figures, however, are greatly improved if no coastal areas are included in the comparison. Removing them is a minor issue in terms of hydrologic impacts, as most rivers in Spain have their sources far from the coast.
Sponsorship : Funding from projects CGL2013- 48367-P, CGL2016-78702-C2-1-R, CGL2016-80609-R (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad), UNCM08-1E-086 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación), and Development of Numerical Weather Prediction and Data Application Technique 1365002970/KMA2018-00721 (Korea Meteorological Administration) is gratefully acknowledged.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11765/11691
ISSN: 1525-755X
1525-7541
Appears in Collections:Artículos científicos 2019-2022


Files in This Item:
  File Description SizeFormat 
jhm-d-19-0116.1.pdf
6,23 MBAdobe PDFThumbnail
View/Open
Show full item record



Items in Arcimis are protected by Creative Commons License, unless otherwise indicated.

Arcimis Repository
Nota Legal Contacto y sugerencias