Evaluation of multiple satellite-derived rainfall products over Morocco

Abstract

The focus of this study is to assess the accuracy of four satellite-based rainfall estimations in Morocco. TRMM3B42V7, ARC2, RFE2.0 and PERSIANN-CDR are evaluated with observations from 19 meteorological stations, at daily and monthly time steps, over different seasons and different classes of topography for the period 2001-2014. Results show that, all satellite datasets reasonably reproduce the mean annual rainfall and the seasonal cycle. In terms of rainfall day statistics, ARC2 and RFE2.0 have performed the best while PERSIANN-CDR exhibited the worst performance. Categorical indices showed that the TRMM3B42V7 product outperforms others in both the boreal summer and the rain shadow area. For the total precipitation, all satellite products underestimate rainfall amount in low and mid elevation, whereas a marked overestimation is observed over the rain shadow area. In terms of rainfall intensity, TRMM3B42V7 exhibits good performance to reproduce high rainfall intensities.