Assessment of the Performance of Satellite-Based Precipitation Products for Flood Events across Diverse Spatial Scales Using GSSHA Modeling System

Abstract

Accurate precipitation measurements for high magnitude rainfall events are of great importance in hydrometeorology and climatology research. The focus of the study is to assess the performance of satellite-based precipitation products against a gauge adjusted Next-Generation Radar (NEXRAD) Stage IV product during high magnitude rainfall events. The assessment was categorized across three spatial scales using watershed ranging from~200-10,000 km 2. The propagation of the errors from rainfall estimates to runoff estimates was analyzed by forcing a hydrologic-model with the satellite-based precipitation products for nine storm events from 2004 to 2015. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center (CPC) Morphing Technique (CMORPH) products showed high correlation to the NEXRAD estimates in all spatial domains, and had an average Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient of 0.81. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Early product was inconsistent with a very high variance of Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient in all spatial domains (from −0.46 to 0.38), however, the variance decreased as the watershed size increased. Surprisingly, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) also showed a very high variance in all the performance statics. In contrast, the un-corrected product of the TRMM showed a relatively better performance. The errors of the precipitation estimates were amplified in the simulated hydrographs. Even though the products provide evenly distributed near-global spatiotemporal estimates, they significantly underestimate strong storm events in all spatial scales.

Hydrological Hazard: Analysis and Prevention

“…Among the 13 articles published in the Special Issue, 1 is a Technical Note (Terranova et al [4]), 11 are Research Articles [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], and one is a Case Report (Schmid-Breton et al [16]). Figure 1 compares the geographic distribution of the authors and research teams publishing in the Special Issue (Figure 1a), as well as of the case studies and demonstration sites ( Figure 1b).…”

“…Furl et al [12] investigated the performance of several satellite precipitation products with respect to gauge corrected ground-based radar estimations for nine moderate to high magnitude events across the Guadalupe River system in south Texas. The analysis was conducted across three nested watersheds (with area ranging from 200 to 10,000 km 2 ) to capture and quantify the effect of the scale on the propagation of the error.…”

“…Word cloud of the keywords published in the papers[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] of this Special Issue.…”

Vehicle-Related Flood Fatalities in Texas, 1959–2019

“…Drainage at these crossings is through culverts and over-the-road flow. Low water crossings throughout Texas, especially in the Hill Country, contribute to road flooding, which poses a significant risk to drivers during flooding conditions [29,30]. located on the edge of the Escarpment, is also susceptible to flash floods due to the steep slopes, the very thin topsoil, and large areas of exposed bedrock.…”

Coastal Runoff in the United Arab Emirates—The Hazard and Opportunity

“…The inability to adequately capture the spatial and temporal variability of rainfall is one of the main sources of error in the estimation of hydrological response in urban areas (e.g., Omranian [21], Furl [22], Emmanuel [23], Emmanuel [24]). While rain gauges remain the most accurate rainfall measurement instruments; however, when applied in urban areas, they have many limitations due to strong small-scale variability [25].…”