How do GPM and TRMM precipitation products perform in alpine regions? A case study in northwestern China’s Qilian Mountains

Journal of Geographical Sciences - Satellite technologies provide valuable areal precipitation datasets in alpine mountains. However, coarse resolution still limits the use of satellite...     

A Geo‐spatial study for analysing temporal responses of NDVI to rainfall

Climate change has become a serious concern worldwide owing to its multifaceted impact upon the physical as well as socio‐economic environment (IPCC, 2013). Vulnerability to climate change is much higher in the developing countries like India, where the economy is mainly agro‐based and productivity from the agricultural sector is dependent upon summer monsoon rainfall. Hence, assessing the quantitative relationship between vegetation patterns and climatic influence has become an increasingly important study conducted on regional and global scales. As vegetation cover plays a key role in conserving the natural environment, studying the spatio‐temporal trend of vegetation is crucial in identifying changes in the natural environment. We analysed the spatial responses of SPOT‐VGT NDVI to TRMM based rainfall during a sixteen year period (1998–2013) in the Bundelkhand region of Central India. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) has proven to be a strong indicator of global vegetation productivity. Among climatic factors, rainfall robustly influences both spatial and temporal outline of NDVI. In this study, we used linear regression for analysing the statistical relationship among NDVI and rainfall and their trends. The study reveals a varying pattern of vegetation dynamics in response to rainfall over the area.     

Spatial disaggregation and intensity correction of TRMM-based rainfall time series for hydrological applications in dryland catchments

Abstract

A novel approach is presented for combining spatial and temporal detail from newly available TRMM-based data sets to derive hourly rainfall intensities at 1-km spatial resolution for hydrological modelling applications. Time series of rainfall intensities derived from 3-hourly 0.25° TRMM 3B42 data are merged with a 1-km gridded rainfall climatology based on TRMM 2B31 data to account for the sub-grid spatial distribution of rainfall intensities within coarse-scale 0.25° grid cells. The method is implemented for two dryland catchments in Tunisia and Senegal, and validated against gauge data. The outcomes of the validation show that the spatially disaggregated and intensity corrected TRMM time series more closely approximate ground-based measurements than non-corrected data. The method introduced here enables the generation of rainfall intensity time series with realistic temporal and spatial detail for dynamic modelling of runoff and infiltration processes that are especially important to water resource management in arid regions.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis

Citation Tarnavsky, E., Mulligan, M. and Husak, G., 2012. Spatial disaggregation and intensity correction of TRMM-based rainfall time series for hydrological applications in dryland catchments. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 57 (2), 248–264.     

用TRMM资料研究1998年长江流域暴雨

热带测雨卫星ＴＲＭＭ资料于１９９８年６月起向公众用户开放。本文使用了１９９８年７月２０日世界时２１：４０分的ＴＲＭＭ资料对长江流域暴雨作了初步研究。ＴＲＭＭ导出的降水产品亦与雨量计，地面雷达观测以及数值模拟结果进行了比较。由此得出，ＴＲＭＭ资料非常适合于暴雨监测研究。此外，它们还有其他广泛得用途。     

TRMM/PR资料在中尺度模式MM5中的应用

将中尺度非静力模式MM5中的积云参数化Grell方案作了改进，使它含有降水云的云水，即雨水含量，并用该模式对1998年6月29日08时-30日08时(北京时)和1998年7月1日08时-2日08时(北京时)发生在淮河流域的两次特大暴雨进行数值模拟研究，同时通过采用R-qr关系将TRMM／PR(Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission/Precipitation Radar)得到的降水强度资料月计算出比含水量qr，然后用qv′＝qv qr取代原模式中的比湿qv。结果表明将TRMM／PR资料加入模式后，由于PR雷达具有较高的空间分辨率，能够很好地反映中小尺度系统的空间结构，能够使湿度值接近实际，缩短了中尺度系统的发展时间，使得模拟出来的降雨强度、雨量中心位置以及雨带形状更接近实况。     

Sustainable fresh water resources management in northern Kuwait—A remote sensing view from Raudatain basin

The paper presents time and cost effective remote sensing technology to estimate recharge potential of fresh water shallow aquifers for their sustainable management of water resources in arid ecosystem. Precipitation measurement of Raudatain basin in Kuwait from TRMM data has been made and integrated with geological, geomorphological and hyrological data, to estimate the recharge potential of this basin. The total precipitation in the basin is estimated at 334 MCM for the year 2003. The initial losses are estimated at 78.43% and the transmission loss at 14.866% of the net precipitation.For sustainable management of the ground water resources, recharge wells have been proposed in the higher order streams to augment the Raudatain aquifer in Kuwait. If the available quantity of precipitation can be successfully utilized, it will reduce considerable pressure on desalination, which leads to increased salinity at the coast in Arabian Gulf.     

Relation between GRACE-derived surface mass variations and precipitation over Australia

Surface mass changes (SMCs) obtained from time-variable gravity observations of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission and precipitation data from the Australian Bureau of Metrology and the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission are analysed over the Australian continent to determine whether there is a statistically significant correlation between them. The multiple linear regression analysis and the principal-component analysis techniques are applied in order to reveal the spatial and temporal variability of each data set separately as well as their mutual relationships. The study provides results and their statistical significance for the whole of Australia including the Murray Darling Basin in the southeast. The results suggest a significant decrease in water storage in the southeast of Australia and a dominant annual cycle over the majority of the continent for the four year period considered (January 2003 to December 2006), both in the surface mass and rainfall time series. The study revealed a direct relation between the data sets over most parts of Australia as confirmed by visual comparison and correlation analysis. When compared with precipitation data GRACE-derived SMCs exhibit smoother spatial and temporal variations. The latter is better suited to detect long-term trends in the presence of strong annual signals, which can adversely affect long-term trend estimates. Results regarding the magnitude of the annual signal suggest that only about a fourth of the precipitation's water masses remain sufficiently long in an area to be detected as a gravity change. The respective phases of the annual signals show an average time lag of about 40 days between precipitation and SMCs, suggesting that it takes about one to two months until a temporal gravity observation can detect a precipitation event.     

利用TRMM资料分析2002年登陆广东的热带气旋降水分布特征

用2002年3个热带气旋登陆广东的过程中自动站的降水资料, 对TRMM准全球、准实时的3 h降水估测资料进行了检验, 表明该资料与地面3 h降水有很好的相关性, 可以反映出热带气旋3 h降水变化的特征。利用该资料分析了这3个热带气旋登陆过程中不同半径、不同方向降水的时空变化特征, 并分析了不同热带气旋之间降水差异的大尺度环流背景。研究发现, 3个热带气旋登陆过程中心附近降水沿半径方向存在收缩和扩展的变化, 除了低层水汽输送的变化和地形对降水造成影响之外, “北冕”和“黄蜂”都发现热带气旋外围降水加强会导致其中心附近降水减弱, 这与以往的观测及研究成果类似。     

Comparison of TRMM and water district rain rates over New Mexico

This paper compares monthly and seasonal rain rates derived from the Version 5 (V5) and Version 6 (V6) TRMM Precipitation Radar (TPR, TSDIS reference 2A25), TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI, 2A12), TRMM Combined Instrument (TCI, 2B31), TRMM calibrated IR rain estimates (3B42) and TRMM merged gauge and satellite analysis (3B43) algorithms over New Mexico (NM) with rain gauge analyses provided by the New Mexico water districts (WD). The average rain rates over the NM region for 1998–2002 are 0.91mmd?1 for WD and 0.75, 1.38, 1.49, 1.27, and 1.07mmd?1 for V5 3B43, 3B42, TMI, PR and TCA; and 0.74, 1.38, 0.87 and 0.97 mm d?1 for V6 3B43, TMI, TPR and TCA, respectively. Comparison of V5 3B43 with WD rain rates and the daily TRMM mission index (TPR and TMI) suggests that the low bias of V5 3B43 for the wet months (summer to early fall) may be due to the non-inclusion of some rain events in the operational gauge analyses that are used in the production of V5 3B43. Correlation analyses show that the WD rain rates vary in phase, with higher correlation between neighboring WDs. High temporal correlations (>0.8) exist between WD and the combined algorithms (3B42, 3B43 and TCA for both V5 and V6) while satellite instrument algorithms (PR, TMI and TCI) are correlated best among themselves at the monthly scale. Paired t-tests of the monthly time series show that V5 3B42 and TMI are statistically different from the WD rain rates while no significant difference exists between WD and the other products. The agreements between the TRMM satellite and WD gauge estimates are best for the spring and fall and worst for winter and summer. The reduction in V6 TMI (?7.4%) and TPR (?31%) rain rates (compared to V5) results in better agreement between WD estimates and TMI in winter and TPR during summer.     

TRMM3B42降水产品在鄱阳湖流域梅川江子流域的精度评价(英文)

在鄱阳湖流域的梅川江子流域,利用52个站点9年(2001-2005及2007-2010)的日降水数据对V6和V7两个版本的TRMM 3B42降水产品进行了精度评价。该评价针对多个时空尺度进行,包括栅格和流域两个空间尺度,日、月和年三个时间尺度。为避免尺度不匹配问题,本文利用泰森多边形方法将点尺度的站点观测数据转换到与TRMM数据相同的栅格尺度。评价结果表明,V6和V7两个版本的TRMM3B42降水产品差别较小,整体上均轻微高估了降水量(偏差均为0.04)。在日尺度,栅格和流域空间尺度上V6和V7TRMM3B42降水产品的精度均较差,相对均方根误差在135%-199%之间。因此,在该地区利用3B42数据进行日尺度的水文分析前需要对其进行校正。在月和年尺度,栅格和流域两个空间尺度上V6和V7两个版本的TRMM 3B42降水产品精度均较高,决定系数达到0.91-0.99,相对均方根误差在4%-23%之间。这表明TRMM 3B42降水产品在该地区月和年尺度的水文分析方面具有很好的应用前景。