HYDROLOGIC CALIBRATION OF TRMM-BASED MULTI SATELLITE PRECIPITATION OVER ARID REGIONS

Abstract

Rainfall depth and distribution is a mandatory input in many fields such as real-life forecasts, hydrological studies, and many engineering applications. Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) delivered a unique 17-year dataset of global tropical rainfall from 1998 AD to 2014 AD, with 3.0 hours interval. Comparing, assessment, and calibrating TRMM based on the ground stations is very valuable to investigate the use of rainfall estimates from TRMM and moreover, to calculate daily and sub-daily depths and ratios to fill the gaps of sparse rainfall recording gauge networks. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has been selected as the study area representing the arid region. Six statistical performance criteria were carried out to evaluate TRMM on daily basis with respect to corresponding ground stations. Hydrologically, the propose of this work is to know the extent of the possibility of relying on TRMM in generating extreme rainfall values at high return periods specially in ungauged areas.