Evaluation of Satellite Precipitation Products for Hydrological Modeling in the Brazilian Cerrado Biome

Abstract

This study investigates the applicability of Satellite Precipitation Products (SPPs) in streamflow simulations performed in the Brazilian Cerrado biome, which is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. Local data from ground observations were used as a reference for evaluating the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) and Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG). The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to simulate the streamflow in a subbasin of the Tocantins river basin. Statistical precision metrics showed that both SPPs presented a satisfactory performance for precipitation monitoring on a monthly scale, in which IMERG performed better than TMPA. The Nash–Sutcliff coefficient and Kling–Gupta efficiency obtained for both calibration and validation period were greater than 0.82 and 0.79, respectively, demonstrating that both SPPs were able to simulate the hydrological regime adequately. However, the bias indicated that the SPPs overestimated the observed streamflow. The r-factor and p-factor values showed that both TMPA and IMERG presented low uncertainty in streamflow simulations. SPPs offer a great alternative for monitoring the precipitation and hydrological studies in the Brazilian Cerrado biome, and presented better simulation results than rain gauges.