Performance of bias-correction schemes for CMORPH rainfall estimates in the Zambezi River Basin

dc.creatorGumindoga, W.
dc.creatorRientjes, T.H.M.
dc.creatorHaile, Alemseged Tamiru
dc.creatorMakurira, H.
dc.creatorReggiani, P.
dc.date2019-07-12
dc.date2020-01-08T04:54:46Z
dc.date2020-01-08T04:54:46Z
dc.date.accessioned2026-06-27T18:43:16Z
dc.descriptionSatellite rainfall estimates (SREs) are prone to bias as they are indirect derivatives of the visible, infrared, and/or microwave cloud properties, and hence SREs need correction. We evaluate the influence of elevation and distance from large-scale open water bodies on bias for Climate Prediction Center-MORPHing (CMORPH) rainfall estimates in the Zambezi basin. The effectiveness of five linear/non-linear and time–space-variant/-invariant bias-correction schemes was evaluated for daily rainfall estimates and climatic seasonality. The schemes used are spatio-temporal bias (STB), elevation zone bias (EZ), power transform (PT), distribution transformation (DT), and quantile mapping based on an empirical distribution (QME). We used daily time series (1998–2013) from 60 gauge stations and CMORPH SREs for the Zambezi basin. To evaluate the effectiveness of the bias-correction schemes spatial and temporal crossvalidation was applied based on eight stations and on the 1998–1999 CMORPH time series, respectively. For correction, STB and EZ schemes proved to be more effective in removing bias. STB improved the correlation coefficient and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency by 50 % and 53 %, respectively, and reduced the root mean squared difference and relative bias by 25 % and 33 %, respectively. Paired t tests showed that there is no significant difference (p- q) plots. The spatial cross-validation approach revealed that most bias-correction schemes removed bias by >28 %. The temporal cross-validation approach showed effectiveness of the bias-correction schemes. Taylor diagrams show that station elevation has an influence on CMORPH performance. Effects of distance >10 km from large-scale open water bodies are minimal, whereas effects at shorter distances are indicated but are not conclusive for a lack of rain gauges. Findings of this study show the importance of applying bias correction to SREs.
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/106466
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/163640
dc.languageen
dc.publisherCopernicus GmbH
dc.rightsOpen Access
dc.sourceGumindoga, W.; Rientjes, T. H. M.; Haile, Alemseged Tamiru; Makurira, H.; Reggiani, P. 2019. Performance of bias-correction schemes for CMORPH rainfall estimates in the Zambezi River Basin. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 23(7):2915-2938. doi: 10.5194/hess-23-2915-2019
dc.subjectrainfall patterns
dc.subjectprecipitation
dc.subjectestimation
dc.subjectsatellite observation
dc.subjectperformance evaluation
dc.subjectriver basins
dc.subjectwater resources
dc.subjectweather forecasting
dc.subjectmeteorological stations
dc.subjectrain gauges
dc.titlePerformance of bias-correction schemes for CMORPH rainfall estimates in the Zambezi River Basin
dc.typeJournal Article

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