Comparison of different instantaneous precipitation estimates over three climatic zones in West Africa was carried out using Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM), 3A12 and 3A25 algorithms, the 3B43 rainfall product, and rain gauge product from the Global Precipitation Climatology Center (GPCC) as ground truth. The 3A12 rainfall product is observed to over-estimate rainfall intensity during MAM and JJAS periods, in all the zones, except in Guinea where it is observed to under-estimate rainfall intensity during the JJAS season. It was also observed that Savannah and Sahel had substantial frequency (occurrences) of zero (0 mm/hr) rainfall intensities during MAM, but only the Sahel zone indicated high frequencies of 0 mm/hr rainfall intensities during JJAS. The mean 3A12 rainfall indicated substantial disparity with that of the gauge (GPCC) rainfall especially in Guinea and Savannah. During peak rainfall season (JJAS) all the rainfall products under-estimate rainfall in Guinea and Sahel region of West Africa, but over-estimates rainfall in the Savannah region, whereas during low rainfall episodes (MAM), all the rainfall products over estimate rainfall when compared with the gauge (GPCC) rainfall product. The Gauge (GPCC)-3B43 had the best relationship (highest correlation) in all the three zones during MAM. All the rainfall products showed very strong correlation with Gauge (GPCC) in all the zones in West Africa during the March-May (MAM) period. The Gauge (GPCC)-3B43 correlation maintained the best relationship with Gauge (GPCC) among the rainfall products, during JJAS.
Ebert, E.E. and Manton, M.J. (1998) Performance of Satellite Rainfall Estimation Algorithms during TOGA COARE. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 55, 1537-1557. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1998)055<1537:POSREA>2.0.CO;2
Laurent, H., Jobard, I. and Toma, A. (1998) Validation of Satellite and Ground-Based Estimates of Precipitation over the Sahel. Atmospheric Research, 47-48, 651-670. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-8095(98)00051-9
Thorne, V., Coakeley, P., Grimes, D. and Dugdale, G. (2001) Comparison of TAMSAT and CPC Rainfall Estimates with Raingauges, for Southern Africa. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 22, 1951-1974. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431160118816
Kummerow, C., Barnes, W., Kozu, T., Shiue, J. and Simpson, J. (1998) The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Sensor Package. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 15, 809-816. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0426(1998)015<0809:TTRMMT>2.0.CO;2
Kummerow, C. and Coauthors (2000) The Status of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) after Two Years in Orbit. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 39, 1965-1982. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(2001)040<1965:TSOTTR>2.0.CO;2
Ramage, K., Jobard, I., Lebel, T. and Desbois, M. (2000) Satellite Estimation of 1-Day to 10-Day Precipitation: Comparison and Validation over Tropical Africa of TRMM, METEOSAT and GPCP Products. Proceeding the 2000 EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Data User’s Conference, Bologna, 29 May-2 June 2000, 363-369.
Jobard, I. and Desbois, M. (1994) Satellite Estimation of the Tropical Precipitation Using the Meteosat and SSM/I Data. Atmospheric Research, 34, 285-298. https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-8095(94)90097-3
Rudolph, B. (2000) Satellite-Based Global Precipitation Estimates and Validation Results. Proceeding EUMETSAT SAF Training Workshop: Climate Monitoring, Dresden, 20-22 November 2000, 140-149.
Dinku, T., Ceccato, P., Grover-Kopec, E., Lemma, M., Connor, S.J. and Ropelewski, C.F. (2007) Validation of Satellite Rainfall Products over East Africa’s Complex Topography. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 28, 1503-1526. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431160600954688
Vila, D., Ferraro, R. and Joyce, R. (2007) Evaluation and Improvement of AMSU Precipitation Retrievals. Journal of Geophysical Research, 112, D20119. https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JD008617
Ebert, E.E., Janowiak, J.E. and Kidd, C. (2007) Comparison of near Real-Time Precipitation Estimates from Satellite Observations and Numerical Models. The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 88, 47-64. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-88-1-47
Agha Kouchak, A., Behrangi, A., Sorooshian, S., Hsu, K. and Amitai, E. (2011) Evaluation of Satellite-Retrieved Extreme Precipitation Rates across the Central United States. Journal of Geophysical Research, 116, D02115.
Tian, Y., Peters-Lidard, C., Choudhury, B. and Garcia, M. (2007) Multitemporal Analysis of TRMM-Based Satellite Precipitation Products for Land Data Assimilation Applications. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 8, 1165-1183. https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JHM859.1
Rudolf, B. (1993) Management and Analysis of Precipitation Data on a Routine Basis. Proceedings of International World Meteorological Organization (WMO)/International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS)/Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Symposium on Precipitation and Evaporation, Bratislava, 20-24 September 1993, Slovak Hydrometeorology Institute, 69-76.
Rudolf, B., Hauschild, W., Rueth, W. and Schneider, U. (1994) Terrestrial Precipitation Analysis: Operational Method and Required Density of Point Measurements. In: Desbois, M. and De′salmand, F., Eds., Global Precipitations and Climate Change, NATO ASI Series, 26, 173-186. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79268-7_10
