Abstract:

The objective of this study is to compare and analyze satellite precipitation extremes of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission level 3 output (TRMM 3B42) over Mediterranean region against the respective high resolution gridded precipitation datasets (0.25. ×. 0.25) based on the E-OBS project, for the period 2000-2011.The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a joint U.S.-Japan satellite mission to monitor tropical and subtropical precipitation and to estimate its associated latent heating. The E-OBS data set (a European daily high-resolution gridded dataset of surface temperature and precipitation) was developed as part of the European Union Framework 6 ENSEMBLES project, with the aim being to use it for validation of Regional Climate Models (RCMs) and for climate change studies.The indices used in the analysis can be divided in three categories: percentile, absolute and duration indices. The percentile indices concern: very wet days (the number of days with daily precipitation amount above the 95th percentile from the examined period) and extremely wet days (the number of days with daily precipitation amount above the 99th percentile from the examined period). The absolute threshold indices concern: number of heavy precipitation days (number of days with daily precipitation amount above 10. mm), number of very heavy precipitation days (number of days with daily precipitation amount above 20. mm) and simple daily intensity index (daily precipitation amount on wet days in a period per number of wet days in the period). The duration indices concern consecutive dry days (the largest number of consecutive days with daily precipitation amount below 1. mm) and consecutive wet days (the largest number of consecutive days with daily precipitation amount above 1. mm).The spatial distribution of the differences between the two datasets along with the spatial distribution of the correlation coefficients are presented and analyzed. Results show considerable regional differences of precipitation indices over the Mediterranean Region. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

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Cited By :3Export Date: 2 November 2015Correspondence Address: Nastos, P.T.; Laboratory of Climatology and Atmospheric Environment, Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, GR-15784 Athens, Greece; email: nastos@geol.uoa.grReferences: Adler, R.F., Huffman, G., Bolvin, D., TRMM and GPCP initial cross-comparison (2002) GEWEX News, 12, pp. 5-6;Adler, R.F., Huffman, G.J., Chang, A., Ferraro, R., Xie, P., Janowiak, J., Rudolf, B., Arkin, P., The Version 2 Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) monthly precipitation analysis (1979-present) (2003) J. Hydrometeorol., 4, pp. 1147-1167; Almazroui, M., Calibration of TRMM rainfall climatology over Saudi Arabia during 1998-2009 (2011) Atmos. Res., 99, pp. 400-414; Alpert, P., Ben-Gai, T., Baharad, A., Benjamini, Y., Yekutieli, D., Colacino, M., Diodato, L., Manes, A., The paradoxical increase of Mediterranean extreme daily rainfall in spite of decrease in total values (2002) Geophys. Res. 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