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Evaluation of high resolution global satellite precipitation mapping during meteorological drought over Iran

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Abstract

This study evaluated the performance of three versions of Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP) products at 0.1° spatial resolution for monitoring meteorological drought over Iran. The investigated GSMaP products included the gauge-corrected product (GSMaP-Gauge), the standard MW-IR combined product (GSMaP-MVK), and the near-real-time product (GSMaP-NRT), examined during the period from 1 March 2014 to 31 December 2018. For reference, we used high-quality ground-observed precipitation data from 344 synoptic stations. The standard precipitation index (SPI) on different timescales from 1 to 12 months was used for the quantification of drought events. The statistical metrics employed for the assessment of the performance of the three GSMaP products included Pearson’s correlation coefficient (R) and root mean square error (RMSE). In addition to the evaluations based on spatial and temporal scales, the capability of the GSMaP products of identifying drought events was considered. The results indicated that GSMaP-Gauge was superior to the other two GSMaP products in the monitoring of drought patterns over Iran, with a much higher R and a much lower RMSE, particularly on long timescales. In spatial terms, all the three GSMaP products exhibited high performance in Western Iran, where precipitation is high. Generally, the study revealed the potential capability of GSMaP products for monitoring meteorological drought over Iran, particularly for data-poor or ungauged basins.

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Data availability

The GSMaP data is available at ftp://rainmap:Niskur+1404@hokusai.eorc.jaxa.jp/. The observation data used in this study has not been released.

Code availability

Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

We extend our sincere gratitude to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for making GSMaP precipitation data available for this work and to the Iranian Meteorological Organization (IRIMO) for providing synoptic stations data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Climatology, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran

    Mohammad Darand & Hassan Fathi

  2. Department of Zrebar Lake Environmental Research, Kurdistan Studies Institute, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran

    Mohammad Darand

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  1. Mohammad Darand
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  2. Hassan Fathi
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Contributions

Conceptualization; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Resources; Software; Validation; Visualization; Writing, review and editing: Mohammad Darand. Writing, original draft preparation: Hassan Fathi.

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Correspondence to Mohammad Darand.

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Darand, M., Fathi, H. Evaluation of high resolution global satellite precipitation mapping during meteorological drought over Iran. Theor Appl Climatol 145, 1421–1436 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-021-03708-8

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