Evaluation of two satellite-based products against ground-based observation for drought analysis in the southern part of Iran

Seyedeh Mahboobeh Jafari (), Mohammad Reza Nikoo (), Maryam Dehghani () and Mohammadali Alijanian ()
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Seyedeh Mahboobeh Jafari: University of Northern British Columbia
Mohammad Reza Nikoo: Shiraz University
Maryam Dehghani: Shiraz University
Mohammadali Alijanian: University of Isfahan

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2020, vol. 102, issue 3, No 25, 1249-1267

Abstract: Abstract Water stress or more specifically drought assessment plays a key role in water management, especially in extreme climate conditions. Basically, globally gridded satellite-based precipitation products are potential sources of data as alternatives for ground-based measurements. However, for a reliable application, they should be evaluated in different regions. In this paper, two satellite-based rainfall products, namely Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA)-Land and Global Land Data Assimilation System-2 (GLDAS-2), have been evaluated against ground-based observations in terms of precipitation and their application for drought analysis. At first, the coarse-resolution MERRA-Land is downscaled to the finer resolution of interest for better comparison. After comparison of these datasets against ground-based observations in terms of precipitation, it is concluded that MERRA-Land can better estimate precipitation. Then, the nonparametric SPIs at various timescales are derived to analyze how well MERRA-Land performs in drought monitoring. Different categorical and statistical error indices are used to assess the efficiency of MERRA-Land in capturing drought events. The results revealed that the downscaled MERRA-Land data can properly detect short-term and mid-term drought events known as agricultural and meteorological droughts throughout the study area, respectively. In addition, drought maps show that the majority of lands experience mid-term scale drought which are in agreement with ground-based observations. The methodology adopted in this study can be applied in areas lacking in rain-gauge stations which significantly extend current capabilities for drought monitoring and early warning systems.

Keywords: Drought; Satellite-based product; Downscaling; MERRA-Land; GLDAS-2; Iran (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11069-020-03965-2

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