Satellite precipitation products are very useful as proxies for gauged observations, especially in Africa, where there are sparse in-situ precipitation-measuring weather stations. The two most commonly used satellite precipitation products in Africa (Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) and Tropical Applications of Meteorology Using Satellite and Ground-based Observations (TAMSAT)) and the relatively new Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for GPM early run (IMERG-ER) of the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM) with soil moisture (GPM+SM2RAIN) are evaluated in comparison to the in-situ observations from the Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO) project on daily, monthly and annual scales in West (Ghana) and East (Uganda) Africa. Statistical verification methods such as continuous and categorical methods were examined. For both countries, the results showed that all the products showed weak performance in capturing daily precipitation. For the monthly and seasonal scales, all the satellite product performances were very good. Also, small precipitation thresholds (2–5 mm/day) were relatively better detected by all the satellite products. All the products failed to detect intermediate (10–20 mm/day) and large threshold precipitation (>30 mm/day). When the products were examined for disaster management applications over a select number of stations in Ghana and Uganda, the results showed inconsistent and poor performances. Using all the metrics, both CHIRPS and TAMSAT showed similar performances, confirming that their common underlying algorithms are bias-adjusted, whereas GPM+SM2RAIN was different because of its independence from in-situ observations. All the products performed better in Ghana compared to Uganda, which may be due to the latter’s complex terrain. It is possible that CHIRPS and TAMSAT may be better suited for hydrological applications like seasonal forecasting, irrigation scheduling, reservoir operations than for daily or sub-daily processes like flash floods. While all these satellite products have their strengths and weaknesses for various environmental applications in Africa, there is a need for a central platform in Africa for a better or improved precipitation analysis based on the assimilation of climate forecasts, in-situ observations, radar, and satellite observations. This will provide higher temporal (3 hr–6 hr) and spatial (~2 km) resolutions. This study is applicable for scientists, water managers, and decision-makers involved in disaster risk management studies in Africa.

卫星降水产品非常适合作为有标观测的代理，特别是在非洲，那里的降水量实测气象站稀疏。非洲的两种最常用的卫星降水产品（气候灾害组站红外降水（CHIRPS）和使用卫星和地面观测的热带气象学应用（TAMSAT））和相对较新的GPM早期综合多卫星检索将全球降水测量任务（GPM）和土壤水分（GPM + SM2RAIN）的（IMERG-ER）与跨非洲水文气象台（TAHMO）项目在每天，每月和每天的实地观测进行比较西（加纳）和东（乌干达）非洲的年度比例。检验了统计验证方法，例如连续和分类方法。对于这两个国家，结果表明，所有产品在捕获每日降水方面均表现不佳。对于月度和季节尺度，所有卫星产品的性能都非常好。此外，所有卫星产品都相对较好地检测到较小的降水阈值（2-5 mm /天）。所有产品均未检测到中间（10–20 mm /天）和大阈值降水（> 30 mm /天）。当在加纳和乌干达的一定数量的站点上对产品进行灾难管理应用检查时，结果表明性能不一致且性能较差。使用所有指标，CHIRPS和TAMSAT均表现出相似的性能，这证实了它们共同的基本算法是经过偏差调整的，而GPM + SM2RAIN因其与原位观测的独立性而有所不同。与乌干达相比，所有产品在加纳的表现都更好，这可能是由于乌干达的地形复杂。CHIRPS和TAMSAT可能比诸如洪水的日常或次日过程更适合于季节预报，灌溉调度，水库调度等水文应用。尽管所有这些卫星产品在非洲的各种环境应用中都有其优势和劣势，但仍需要在非洲建立一个中央平台，以便在同化气候预报，实地观测，雷达和气象观测的基础上，对降水进行更好或更完善的分析。卫星观测。这将提供更高的时间（3 hr–6 hr）和空间（〜2 km）分辨率。