Satellite-based Flood Modeling Using TRMM-based Rainfall Products

Sensors

Amanda Harris³  Sayma Rahman²  Faisal Hossain³  Lance Yarborough¹  Amvrossios C. Bagtzoglou² 

[1] University of Mississippi Geoinformatics Center, Department of Geological Engineering, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, USA;Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA;Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN 38505, USA

关键词: Satellite rainfall;    statistical downscaling;    floods;    uncertainty;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s7123416

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Increasingly available and a virtually uninterrupted supply of satellite-estimated rainfall data is gradually becoming a cost-effective source of input for flood prediction under a variety of circumstances. However, most real-time and quasi-global satellite rainfall products are currently available at spatial scales ranging from 0.25° to 0.50° and hence, are considered somewhat coarse for dynamic hydrologic modeling of basin-scale flood events. This study assesses the question: what are the hydrologic implications of uncertainty of satellite rainfall data at the coarse scale? We investigated this question on the 970 km² Upper Cumberland river basin of Kentucky. The satellite rainfall product assessed was NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) product called 3B41RT that is available in pseudo real time with a latency of 6-10 hours. We observed that bias adjustment of satellite rainfall data can improve application in flood prediction to some extent with the trade-off of more false alarms in peak flow. However, a more rational and regime-based adjustment procedure needs to be identified before the use of satellite data can be institutionalized among flood modelers.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© 2007 by MDPI (http://www.mdpi.org).