Abstract
In the most ungauged areas, lack of precipitation information limits the accuracy of water balance approaches. The ungauged Drâa river basin (DRB) in center eastern of Morocco is one of the ten driest basins worldwide with lack of adequate rainfall dataset for water resources management. This study assess five satellite precipitation datasets (P-datasets) with high spatial resolution (0.0375°–0.1°) and long period of record (> 40 years), namely CHIRPS V2.0, MSWEP V2.8, PERSIANN-CCS-CDR, TAMSAT V3.1, and ERA5-Land with reference to ground rain observations, based on continuous, categorical, and volumetric indices, and at various elevations, rainfall intensities, and temporal scales (i.e., monthly, seasonal, and sub-seasonal). Moreover, the ability to detect extreme precipitation event and the suitability of the conventional rain gauge to increase the magnitude of error was also quantified. ERA5-Land followed by MSWEP V2.8 have shown the best statistical scores at different times, intensity and elevation scales, while CHIRPS V2.0, PERSIANN-CCS-CDR and TAMSAT V3.1 provide poor estimations of rainfall with high sensitivity to the complexity of terrains. CHIRPS V2.0 was more efficient in detecting wet months, but a large event detected were not confirmed by ground observation. The magnitude of error tends to decrease during summer and for precipitation within the range of 1–12.5 mm for all P-datasets. However, all the five products underestimate the frequency of dry months and overestimate high precipitation intensity. Our findings not only recommend ERA5-Land and MSWEP V2.8 datasets as alternative to rain gauge but also describe the limitation of CHIRPS V2.0, TAMSAT V3.1 and PERSIANN-CSS-CDR for such hydrological studies.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the data providers of CHIRPS, MSWEP, PERSIANN, TAMSAT and ERA5. We gratefully acknowledge the Basin Agency of Drâa Oued Noun and the National Moroccan Weather Service (Direction regional Centre-Est) of Ouarzazate for its support in obtaining rainfall data over DRB. We are deeply grateful to the University of Ghent for their support during the research stay spent. This work was carried out within the CHARISMA Project with the assistance of Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology. Furthermore, we acknowledge the important contribution of the “Institut de Recherche pour le D´eveloppement” (IRD, France).
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The study was funded by Académie Hassan II des Sciences et Techniques.
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Khettouch, A., Hssaisoune, M., Hermans, T. et al. Ground validation of satellite-based precipitation estimates over poorly gauged catchment: the case of the Drâa basin in Central-East Morocco. Med. Geosc. Rev. 5, 159–175 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42990-023-00108-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42990-023-00108-0