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Applicability analysis of multiple precipitation products in the Qaidam Basin, Northwestern China

  • Environmental Resilience in the Pandemic Year 2020
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Abstract

In the Qaidam Basin, meteorological stations are sparsely distributed, and the observational precipitation data are therefore not comprehensive, which significantly hampers the accurate assessment and optimal allocation of regional water resources. This study aims to evaluate the accuracy of three precipitation products (MSWEP V2, GPM IMERG V6, and TRMM 3B43) against gauged-based precipitation data from nine meteorological stations and 12 hydrologic stations in the Qaidam Basin from 2001 to 2016. The results reveal the following: (1) At the annual and monthly scales, the MSWEP product has the highest accuracy, followed by the GPM product. However, the TRMM product only reveals a correlation at the monthly scale; (2) the MSWEP product performs better in the wet season than the dry season, and the TRMM product has an abnormally high value of precipitation in the wet season. Moreover, it was shown that the accuracy of the GPM product is superior to that of the TRMM product; however, it has a low detection capability in some mountainous areas; and (3) the average error of each precipitation product at the meteorological stations is smaller than that at the hydrological stations.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This research was funded the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41671026), the Important Science & Technology Specific Projects of Qinghai Province (2019-SF-A4-1), and the National Natural Science Foundation of Qinghai Province (2019-ZJ-7020).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing, 100101, China

    Shanshan Qi & Aifeng Lv

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Shanshan Qi & Aifeng Lv

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  1. Shanshan Qi
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  2. Aifeng Lv
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Contributions

A.L. and S.Q. conceived the study. A.L. and S.Q. performed the data analysis and wrote the paper. A.L. read and edited the manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Aifeng Lv.

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Qi, S., Lv, A. Applicability analysis of multiple precipitation products in the Qaidam Basin, Northwestern China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 12557–12573 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13291-0

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