A new, long-term daily satellite-based rainfall dataset for operational monitoring in Africa

Maidment, R. I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2054-3259, Grimes, D., Black, E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1344-6186, Tarnavsky, E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3403-0411, Young, M., Greatrex, H., Allan, R. P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0264-9447, Stein, T. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9215-5397, Nkonde, E., Senkunda, S. and Alcántara, E. M. U. (2017) A new, long-term daily satellite-based rainfall dataset for operational monitoring in Africa. Scientific Data, 4. 170063. ISSN 2052-4463 doi: 10.1038/sdata.2017.63

Abstract/Summary

Rainfall information is essential for many applications in developing countries, and yet, continually updated information at fine temporal and spatial scales is lacking. In Africa, rainfall monitoring is particularly important given the close relationship between climate and livelihoods. To address this information gap, this paper describes two versions (v2.0 and v3.0) of the TAMSAT daily rainfall dataset based on high-resolution thermal-infrared observations, available from 1983 to the present. The datasets are based on the disaggregation of 10-day (v2.0) and 5-day (v3.0) total TAMSAT rainfall estimates to a daily time-step using daily cold cloud duration. This approach provides temporally consistent historic and near-real time daily rainfall information for all of Africa. The estimates have been evaluated using ground-based observations from five countries with contrasting rainfall climates (Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zambia) and compared to other satellite-based rainfall estimates. The results indicate that both versions of the TAMSAT daily estimates reliably detects rainy days, but have less skill in capturing rainfall amount—results that are comparable to the other datasets.

Additional Information	An Erratum to this article was published on 11/7/2017 and is available here https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.82
Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/70562
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Walker Institute Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Additional Information	An Erratum to this article was published on 11/7/2017 and is available here https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.82
Publisher	Nature Publishing Group
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