Satellite precipitation products and hydrologic applications

This study examined the application of satellite precipitation in the modelling of 10 watersheds in diverse locations around the planet (Brazil, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand). Significantly, modelled streamflow based on local rain-gauge data and the production version of TRMM 3B42 yielded acceptable results in most of the examined watersheds. An important finding was that the newest version of TRMM 3B42 (V7) can potentially support modelling in watersheds that are significantly smaller than 10,000km(2). Conversely, real-time satellite products that have more limited (or no) bias corrections (such as CMORPH) produced model results that were unacceptable in most basins.