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Satellite-based monitoring of meteorological drought over different regions of Iran: application of the CHIRPS precipitation product

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Abstract

In the present study, the spatiotemporal evaluation of the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station (CHIRPS) satellite precipitation product is performed in capturing meteorological drought over different climatic regions of Iran. The performance of the product as a high spatial resolution dataset in monitoring drought is evaluated against the 68 meteorological stations from short to long scale (i.e., SPI1, SPI3, SPI6, SPI9, and SPI12) in the period of 1987 to 2017. Besides, the capability of the CHIRPS in detecting drought events is assessed in different drought classes. The results suggest that the climate type, the time scale, and the drought class affect the quality of the CHIRPS performance. The CHIRPS offers the best performance in the detection of all drought events with SPI <  − 1 over the SPI1 (0.69 < POD < 0.85). However, the product provides the worst performance for SPI12 (0.50 < POD < 0.70). At the country level, the highest agreement between the CHIRPS- and observation data-based SPI is found over the SPI6 (CC = 0.56), while the lowest is observed over the SPI12 (CC = 0.47). Based on the temporal evaluation, the G6 (0.18 < CC < 0.44, 1.06 < RMSE < 1.28) and G8 (0.17 < CC < 0.43, 1.06 < RMSE < 1.29) regions located in the southern coast of the Caspian Sea have an inadequate performance. However, the southern parts (G4 region) (0.38 < CC < 0.65, 0.83 < RMSE < 1.27) and the northwestern area (G3 region) (0.53 < CC < 0.62, 0.87 < RMSE < 0.97) of the country offer the best performance. The spatial evaluation describes the high accuracy (CC > 0.7, RMSE < 0.5) in some regions, including the western parts of G1, the northern area of G3, and the southern parts of G4. The research findings provided an important opportunity to advance the understanding of drought monitoring over the different climatic regions based on the high-resolution satellite precipitation products.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the Islamic Republic of Iran Meteorological Organization and the original producers of CHIRPS for providing free downloadable precipitation data. The authors greatly appreciate the valuable comments and suggestions from the anonymous reviewers and the editors, which helped to improve the quality of the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Ali Ghozat, Ahmad Sharafati & Seyed Abbas Hosseini

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  1. Ali Ghozat
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  2. Ahmad Sharafati
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Ali Ghozat carried out the review analysis, modeling, and participated in drafting the manuscript. Ahmad Sharafati proposed the topic, participated in coordination, and aided in the interpretation of results and paper editing. Seyed Abbas Hosseini carried out the investigation and paper editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Ghozat, A., Sharafati, A. & Hosseini, S.A. Satellite-based monitoring of meteorological drought over different regions of Iran: application of the CHIRPS precipitation product. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 36115–36132 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-18773-3

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