Statistical evaluation of MPA‐RT high‐resolution precipitation estimates from satellite platforms over the central and eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

A statistical verification of satellite precipitation estimates has been conducted for a one year period over the Central and Eastern Mediterranean. The NASA real‐time Multi‐satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA‐RT) data are verified against 73 raingauge data. The verification aims to assess the skill of these satellite estimates to detect rainy areas and to give information on the accumulated precipitation errors. The results show almost unbiased results for the low and medium precipitation thresholds, especially during the wet period of the year. At higher accumulation thresholds, the satellite data overestimate the rain events compared to the raingauges, especially during the dry period of the year, when the major part of precipitation is produced by isolated thunderstorms. Moreover the analysis showed that for the high precipitation amounts and during the whole period the probability of detection is quite low and the false alarm ratio is high (reaching ∼85% during the dry period).

Keywords

Affiliated Institutions

• National Observatory of Athens GR
• Goddard Space Flight Center US

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