Geophysical Research Letters (Nov 2023)

A New Event‐Based Error Decomposition Scheme for Satellite Precipitation Products

  • Runze Li,
  • Clement Guilloteau,
  • Pierre‐Emmanuel Kirstetter,
  • Efi Foufoula‐Georgiou

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL105343
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 50, no. 22
pp. n/a – n/a

Abstract

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Abstract Understanding the nature and origin of errors in satellite precipitation products is important for applications and product improvement. Here we propose a new error decomposition scheme incorporating precipitation event (continuous rainy periods) information to characterize satellite errors. Under this framework, the errors are attributed to the inaccuracies in event occurrence, timing (event start/end time), and intensity. The Integrated MultisatellitE Retrieval for Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG) is used as our test product to apply the method over CONUS. The above‐listed factors contribute approximately 30%, 20%, and 50% to the total bias, respectively. Significant asymmetry exists in the temporal distribution of biases throughout events: early event endings cause threefold more precipitation amount bias than late event beginnings, while early event beginnings cause fourfold more bias than late event endings. Dominant contributors vary across seasons and regions. The proposed error decomposition provides insight into sources of error for improved retrievals.

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