Long-term spatiotemporal evaluation of CHIRPS satellite precipitation product over different climatic regions of Iran

Satellite precipitation products are important data sources in different spatial resolutions, time scales, and spatio-temporal coverage. In this study, the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station (CHIRPS) satellite precipitation product with a high spatial resolution (0.05 degrees) is evaluated in the period of 1987 to 2017 over different climate regions of Iran. The accuracy of the satellite product is compared with the 68 ground-based meteorological stations over different time scales (i.e., daily, monthly, and annual) and precipitation classes. Results show that the performance of CHIRPS depends on the time scale, precipitation depth, and climate type. The best performance of the product (CC = 0.80, FRMSE = 0.57, NSE = 0.63) across the country is observed in the annual time scale, while the monthly product offers the best performance in the regional scale. The product provides inadequate performance (CC = 0.34, FRMSE = 5.72, NSE = - 0.2) in daily time scale across the country and most of the climatic regions. The product is found to be most accurate in the south and southwest of the country, while the lowest performance is observed over the Caspian coast. The CHIRPS satellite provides the best performance in detection of no/tiny precipitation (POD > 0.90) and the worst performance in light and low, moderate precipitation (POD < 0.10). It is expected that the findings of the current study can be used to manage the water resources and mitigate the disaster at the national level.

Automated summary

The study evaluated the CHIRPS satellite precipitation product in different climate regions of Iran and found that its performance depends on time scale, precipitation depth, and climate type. The product performed best at the annual time scale and worst at the daily time scale, with higher accuracy in the south and southwest regions of the country.