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

Tarnavsky, E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3403-0411, 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). pp. 248-264. ISSN 0262-6667 doi: 10.1080/02626667.2011.637498

Abstract/Summary

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.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/26200
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Uncontrolled Keywords	TRMM, precipitation, rainfall intensity, remote sensing, gamma distribution, modelling, hydrology
Publisher	International Association of Hydrological Sciences
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item