Poyang Lake basin is one of the most frequently affected areas by a variety of flood or drought events in China. Satellite-based precipitation data have greatly improved their temporal and spatial resolution in recent years, but the short length of records limited their applications in some fields. This paper compared and evaluated the creditability of using a short period data series to estimate the statistics characteristics of long period data series and investigated the usefulness of TRMM rainfall data for monitoring the temporal and spatial distribution of flood/drought classes by the Z index method in Poyang Lake basin. The results show that (1) the 1998–2010 data series are sufficiently robust to depict the statistics characteristics of long period data; (2) the intra-annual distribution and interannual variability of flood/drought classes based on TRMM rainfall data matched well with the results from rain gauges data; (3) the spatial agreement between TRMM and interpolated gauges rainfall varied with the precipitation characteristics; and (4) TRMM rainfall data described the similar spatial pattern of flood/drought classes with the interpolated gauges rainfall. In conclusion, it is suitable and credible for flood/drought classes evaluation based on the TRMM rainfall data in Poyang Lake basin. 1. Introduction Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China, is located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and directly exchanges water and interacts with the Yangtze River [1]. The discharges from Poyang Lake through a channel in its northern part into the Yangtze River are higher than the total runoff from the Yellow River, Haihe River, and Huaihe River and play an important role in water security and ecosystem security for the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River [2]. In recent decades, the lake and its surrounding catchments have suffered from frequent droughts and floods, especially in 1990s and 2000s [3–5]. These severe drought and flood events have caused severe economic losses and serious damages to towns and farms or even human death [6, 7] and have raised concerns for the lake ecology and local water resources management [8]. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the development and spatial distribution of floods and droughts in Poyang Lake basin for prevention and mitigation of flood/drought disaster. Satellite can continuously monitor the precipitation over a large area and receive the rainfall data in near real time. Recent development in global and regional satellite-based precipitation products has greatly
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