Evaluation and Hydrologic Validation of Satellite-based Precipitation Datasets over the Upper Catchment of the Red River Basin, China

Satellite-based precipitation products (SPPs) provide an alternative source of precipitation estimates in hydrological simulations, however, their precision varies greatly in the different catchments and climate zones. This study evaluates the accuracy of three SPPs (i.e., TRMM 3B42V7, CMORPH-CRT, and PERSIANN-CDR) and their feasibility in hydrological simulations over the upper catchment of the Red River Basin, Southwest China over the period of 1998-2010. Results indicated that: (1) the TRMM 3B42 product performed best at the daily scale, followed by CMORPH_CRT product, and then the PERSIANN_CDR product. All SPPs showed higher accuracy at the monthly scale than the daily scale. (2) the TRMM 3B42 product captured precipitation events better than the other two SPPs, while the PERSIANN_CDR product has the worst performance. However, the SPPs tend to overestimate the light rain events and underestimate the heavy and hard rain events. (3) Under two parameterization scenarios of GR hydrological models, the parameters calibrated using each force products (Scenario II) significantly improved accuracy of hydrological simulation when compared with gauge-calibrated parameters (Scenario I) at both daily and monthly scales. In addition, all SPPs forced simulations underestimate the high flow and overestimate the low flow in various degree; Nevertheless, a satisfactory performance of hydrological simulations was found at the monthly scale. For the three SPPs, the TRMM 3B42 and CMORPH-CRT forced simulations outperformed than that of the PERSIANN-CDR forced. In general, the SPPs have great potential in hydrological simulation applications and water resources management over poorly-gauged and inaccessible transboundary river basins.