Water 2013, 5(4), 1848-1864; doi:10.3390/w5041848
Dry/Wet Conditions Monitoring Based on TRMM Rainfall Data and Its Reliability Validation over Poyang Lake Basin, China
1
State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 73 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, China
2
School of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, No.2 Tiansheng Road, Chongqing 400715, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 27 September 2013 / Revised: 5 November 2013 / Accepted: 11 November 2013 / Published: 19 November 2013
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Flood Estimation and Analysis in a Variable and Changing Environment)
Abstract
Local dry/wet conditions are of great concern in regional water resource and floods/droughts disaster risk management. Satellite-based precipitation products have greatly improved their accuracy and applicability and are expected to offer an alternative to ground rain gauges data. This paper investigated the capability of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) rainfall data for monitoring the temporal and spatial variation of dry/wet conditions in Poyang Lake basin during 1998–2010, and validated its reliability with rain gauges data from 14 national meteorological stations in the basin. The results show that: (1) the daily TRMM rainfall data does not describe the occurrence and contribution rates of precipitation accurately, but monthly TRMM data have a good linear relationship with rain gauges rainfall data; (2) both the Z index and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) based on monthly TRMM rainfall data oscillate around zero and show a consistent interannual variability as compared with rain gauges data; (3) the spatial pattern of moisture status, either in dry months or wet months, based on both the Z index and SPI using TRMM data, agree with the observed rainfall. In conclusion, the monthly TRMM rainfall data can be used for monitoring the variation and spatial distribution of dry/wet conditions in Poyang Lake basin. View Full-TextKeywords:
dry/wet monitoring; TRMM; Z index; SPI; Poyang Lake basin
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Li, X.; Zhang, Q.; Ye, X. Dry/Wet Conditions Monitoring Based on TRMM Rainfall Data and Its Reliability Validation over Poyang Lake Basin, China. Water 2013, 5, 1848-1864.