Intercomparisons of Rainfall Estimates from TRMM and GPM Multisatellite Products over the Upper Mekong River Basin

The aim of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of daily rainfall estimates based on the GPM level-3 final product derived from the IMERG algorithm (abbreviated as IMERG) and TRMM 3B42, version 7 (abbreviated as 3B42), in the upper Mekong River basin, a mountainous region in southwestern China. High-density rain gauges provide exceptional resources for ground validation of satellite rainfall estimates over this region. The performance of the two satellite rainfall products is evaluated during two rainy seasons (May–October) over the period 2014–15, as well as their applications in hydrological simulations. Results indicate that 1) IMERG systematically reduces the bias value in rainfall estimates at the gridbox scale and presents a greater ability to capture rainfall variability at the local domain scale compared with 3B42; 2) IMERG improves the ability to capture rain events with moderate intensities and presents higher capability in detecting occurrences of extreme rain events, but significantly overestimates the amounts of these extreme events; and 3) IMERG generally produces comparable daily streamflow simulations to 3B42 and tends to outperform 3B42 in driving hydrological simulations when calibrating model parameters using each rainfall input. This study provides an early evaluation of the IMERG rainfall product over a mountainous region. The findings indicate the potential of the IMERG product in overestimating extreme rain events, which could serve as the basis for further improvement of IMERG rainfall retrieval algorithms. The hydrological evaluations described here could shed light on the emerging application of retrospectively generated IMERG products back to the TRMM era.