Satellite Based Cloud Detection and Rainfall Estimation in the Upper Blue Nile Basin

Abstract

In this study remote sensing for rainfall estimation is evaluated. For the Lake Tana basin in Ethiopia the diurnal cycle of rainfall is assessed using satellite observations at high temporal resolution and ground based observations. Also convective activity of a cloud system on the lake has been observed through satellite imagery and shows a potential to observe characteristics of a cloud that produced extreme rainfall intensity. These characteristics include the cloud area and a volume index as well as temporal evolution of distance and direction of the centroid of a cloud mass from a rain gauge at the Gurer Island in Lake Tana. In this work it is concluded that remote sensing can be very helpful in estimating rainfall, assessing the diurnal cycle and monitoring heavy rainfall producing clouds. The high potential of remote sensing observations is mainly because the observations are consistently available with spatially continuous coverage.