scholarly journals Evaluation of TRMM Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis during the passage of Tropical Cyclones over Fiji

2016 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 442
Author(s):  
Anil Deo ◽  
Kevin J. E. Walsh

Fiji is prone to the devastating effects of heavy rainfall during the passage of tropical cyclones (TCs) and as such accurate measurement of rainfall during such events is urgent for effective disaster mitigation and risk analysis. Fiji, however, has a sparse distribution of rain gauges, thus there is a deficiency in the accurate measurement of rainfall. This gap could be filled by satellite-based rainfall estimates but before they are used, they need to be validated against a reference dataset for their accuracy and limitations. This study thus validates the TRMM based Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) estimates over the island of Fiji. The study shows that TMPA has moderate skill in estimating rainfall during the passage of TCs over the island of Fiji. This skill is also highly variable as it decreases with an increase in rainfall intensity, increase in distance from the cyclone centre and increasing terrain elevation. The ability of TMPA also varies case by case but we report a general underestimation of rainfall by TMPA during the passage of TCs with a larger rainfall rate (defined in our case as those TCs with average daily rainfall greater than 25 mm day-1).

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhi-Weng Chua ◽  
Yuriy Kuleshov ◽  
Andrew Watkins

This study evaluates the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center morphing technique (CMORPH) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP) satellite precipitation estimates over Australia across an 18 year period from 2001 to 2018. The evaluation was performed on a monthly time scale and used both point and gridded rain gauge data as the reference dataset. Overall statistics demonstrated that satellite precipitation estimates did exhibit skill over Australia and that gauge-blending yielded a notable increase in performance. Dependencies of performance on geography, season, and rainfall intensity were also investigated. The skill of satellite precipitation detection was reduced in areas of elevated topography and where cold frontal rainfall was the main precipitation source. Areas where rain gauge coverage was sparse also exhibited reduced skill. In terms of seasons, the performance was relatively similar across the year, with austral summer (DJF) exhibiting slightly better performance. The skill of the satellite precipitation estimates was highly dependent on rainfall intensity. The highest skill was obtained for moderate rainfall amounts (2–4 mm/day). There was an overestimation of low-end rainfall amounts and an underestimation in both the frequency and amount for high-end rainfall. Overall, CMORPH and GSMaP datasets were evaluated as useful sources of satellite precipitation estimates over Australia.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (17) ◽  
pp. 6127-6135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier P. Prat ◽  
Brian R. Nelson

Abstract The authors evaluate the contribution of tropical cyclones (TCs) to daily precipitation extremes over land for TC-active regions around the world. From 1998 to 2012, data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA 3B42) showed that TCs account for an average of 3.5% ± 1% of the total number of rainy days over land areas experiencing cyclonic activity regardless of the basin considered. TC days represent between 13% and 31% of daily extremes above 4 in. day−1, but can account locally for the large majority (>70%) or almost all (≈100%) of extreme rainfall even over higher-latitude areas marginally affected by cyclonic activity. Moreover, regardless of the TC basin, TC-related extremes occur preferably later in the TC season after the peak of cyclonic activity.


2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Mabel Castro ◽  
Marcelo Miranda ◽  
Bonifacio Fernández

Estimating the spatial variability of precipitation for hydrological purposes is a challenge, especially in mountainous regions with sparse rain gauges. This study assessed the use of the satellite product Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) for the rainfall estimation at the local and regional level, on a daily and monthly basis. The evaluation was carried out in a mountainous region of the central Andes Range with a Mediterranean climate. The performance of the satellite estimation was carried out using categorical metrics, residual methods, and correlation and efficiency measures. The local analysis showed that TMPA product performance was better for rainfall events of medium magnitude. Regional analysis results suggest that TMPA products are able to capture the mean spatial pattern for flat areas on a monthly basis. However, the intercomparison in the mountains is likely not reliable, because there are not enough rain gauges to enable a spatial comparison in this area. The satellite estimates also tend to miss precipitation that is enhanced by flow lifting over the mountains. Moreover, the low performance is because the precipitation in the study site is predominantly produced by frontal mechanisms, where the ice content is also lower than that from convective origin.


2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nityanand Singh ◽  
Ashwini Ranade

Abstract Characteristics of wet spells (WSs) and intervening dry spells (DSs) are extremely useful for water-related sectors. The information takes on greater significance in the wake of global climate change and climate-change scenario projections. The features of 40 parameters of the rainfall time distribution as well as their extremes have been studied for two wet and dry spells for 19 subregions across India using gridded daily rainfall available on 1° latitude × 1° longitude spatial resolution for the period 1951–2007. In a low-frequency-mode, intra-annual rainfall variation, WS (DS) is identified as a “continuous period with daily rainfall equal to or greater than (less than) daily mean rainfall (DMR) of climatological monsoon period over the area of interest.” The DMR shows significant spatial variation from 2.6 mm day−1 over the extreme southeast peninsula (ESEP) to 20.2 mm day−1 over the southern-central west coast (SCWC). Climatologically, the number of WSs (DSs) decreases from 11 (10) over the extreme south peninsula to 4 (3) over northwestern India as a result of a decrease in tropical and oceanic influences. The total duration of WSs (DSs) decreases from 101 (173) to 45 (29) days, and the duration of individual WS (DS) from 12 (18) to 7 (11) days following similar spatial patterns. Broadly, the total rainfall of wet and dry spells, and rainfall amount and rainfall intensity of actual and extreme wet and dry spells, are high over orographic regions and low over the peninsula, Indo-Gangetic plains, and northwest dry province. The rainfall due to WSs (DSs) contributes ∼68% (∼17%) to the respective annual total. The start of the first wet spell is earlier (19 March) over ESEP and later (22 June) over northwestern India, and the end of the last wet spell occurs in reverse, that is, earlier (12 September) from northwestern India and later (16 December) from ESEP. In recent years/decades, actual and extreme WSs are slightly shorter and their rainfall intensity higher over a majority of the subregions, whereas actual and extreme DSs are slightly (not significantly) longer and their rainfall intensity weaker. There is a tendency for the first WS to start approximately six days earlier across the country and the last WS to end approximately two days earlier, giving rise to longer duration of rainfall activities by approximately four days. However, a spatially coherent, robust, long-term trend (1951–2007) is not seen in any of the 40 WS/DS parameters examined in the present study.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 202
Author(s):  
Wan-Ru Huang ◽  
Pin-Yi Liu ◽  
Jie Hsu ◽  
Xiuzhen Li ◽  
Liping Deng

This study assessed four near-real-time satellite precipitation products (NRT SPPs) of Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP)—NRT v6 (hereafter NRT6), NRT v7 (hereafter NRT7), Gauge-NRT v6 (hereafter GNRT6), and Gauge-NRT v7 (hereafter GNRT7)— in representing the daily and monthly rainfall variations over Taiwan, an island with complex terrain. The GNRT products are the gauge-adjusted version of NRT products. Evaluations for warm (May–October) and cold months (November–April) were conducted from May 2017 to April 2020. By using observations from more than 400 surface gauges in Taiwan as a reference, our evaluations showed that GNRT products had a greater error than NRT products in underestimating the monthly mean rainfall, especially during the warm months. Among SPPs, NRT7 performed best in quantitative monthly mean rainfall estimation; however, when examining the daily scale, GNRT6 and GNRT7 were superior, particularly for monitoring stronger (i.e., more intense) rainfall events during warm and cold months, respectively. Spatially, the major improvement from NRT6 to GNRT6 (from NRT7 to GNRT7) in monitoring stronger rainfall events over southwestern Taiwan was revealed during warm (cold) months. From NRT6 to NRT7, the improvement in daily rainfall estimation primarily occurred over southwestern and northwestern Taiwan during the warm and cold months, respectively. Possible explanations for the differences between the ability of SPPs are attributed to the algorithms used in SPPs. These findings highlight that different NRT SPPs of GSMaP should be used for studying or monitoring the rainfall variations over Taiwan for different purposes (e.g., warning of floods in different seasons, studying monthly or daily precipitation features in different seasons, etc.).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akshay Rajeev ◽  
Vimal Mishra

<p>India is severely affected by tropical cyclones (TC) each year, which generates intense rainfall and strong winds leading to flooding. Most of the TC induced floods have been attributed to heavy rain associated with them. Here we show that both rainfall and elevated antecedent soil moisture due to temporally compounding tropical cyclones cause floods in the major Indian basins. We assess each basin's response to observed TC events from 1980 to 2019 using the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model. The VIC model was calibrated (R2 > 0.5) and evaluated against observed hourly streamflow for major river basins in India. We find that rainfall due to TC does not result in floods in the basin, even for rainfall intensities similar to the monsoon period. However, TCs produce floods in the basins, when antecedent soil moisture was high. Our findings have implications for the understanding of TC induced floods, which is crucial for disaster mitigation and management.</p>


Author(s):  
С.Н. Волков ◽  
А.И. Житенев ◽  
О.Н. Рублевская ◽  
Ю.А. Курганов ◽  
И.Г. Костенко ◽  
...  

Анализ официальных источников информации показывает, что распределение экстремальных дождей по территории происходит с учетом микроклиматических особенностей ее местности. Для оценки степени достоверности таких закономерностей в пределах мегаполисов проведены экспериментальные исследования, в которых в качестве экспериментальной базы принята система водоотведения Санкт-Петербурга, в качестве средств измерения – сеть из 34 автоматических осадкомеров, осуществляющих записи с интервалом 5 минут, в качестве экспериментальной информации – база данных результатов измерений в течение шести лет. В результате исследований установлено, что в городской среде формируется микроклимат, отличающийся от климата за ее пределами. Кроме того, в масштабах мегаполисов имеются микроклиматические зоны, в которых зависимости интенсивностей осадков от их повторяемости могут существенно отличаться. При этом отличия начинают проявляться при периодах р однократного превышения расчетной интенсивности дождей от 1,5–2 лет, а при их меньших значениях отличия не выявлены. Полученный результат согласуется с данными исследований других авторов, экспериментально установивших, что количество экстремальных дождей увеличивается в тех районах мегаполисов, как правило, исторических,в которых меньше зеленых насаждений и, соответственно, более высокая степень перегрева поверхности в летнее время. The analysis of official data resources shows that the distribution of extreme rainfall over the territory is carried out with account of the microclimatic features of the area. To estimate the degree of reliability of such patterns within megalopolises, experimental studies were carried out, where the wastewater disposal system of St. Petersburg was assumed as an experimental base; a network of 34 automatic rain gauges recording with an interval of 5 minutes was assumed as a measuring instrument, and a base was used as experimental information, i. e., a measurement data base for six years. As a result of the research, it has been established that a microclimate is formed in the urban environment that differs from the climate outside it. Besides, on a megacity scale, there are microclimatic zones where the dependences of precipitation intensities on their frequency can differ significantly. In this case, the differences begin to manifest at periods p of one-time excess of the calculated rainfall intensity from 1.5–2 years, whereas at lower values, no differences have been found. The result obtained is consistent with the research data obtained by other authors, who experimentally established that the amount of extreme rainfall increased in those areas of megacities, as a rule, historical ones, where fewer green spaces are located, and, accordingly, a higher degree of surface overheating in summer is recorded.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document