Validation of precipitation obtained from GPM and H-SAF satellite data with relation to Ukrainian ground weather stations' data

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to validate H-SAF and GPM satellite precipitation data for the territory of Ukraine. Validation was carried out by comparing satellite data with data from ground weather stations of Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center and included the following stages: data collection and processing, bringing the data to the same spatial and temporal resolution, calculation of correlation coefficients and construction of confusion matrices. Correlation coefficients were calculated for each of the stations for two studied periods (the first period - April-September 2020, the second period - April-September 2021). In addition, to ensure a more detailed analysis, confusion matrices were constructed based on division of precipitation into classes of different intensity. The comparative analysis showed that a larger number of stations (117) has a correlation coefficient of 0.5 - 0.8 with relation to GPM data, and, as for HSAF precipitation data, a larger number of stations (59) has a low correlation coefficient (0 - 0.3). Confusion matrices were calculated for the following four classes of rainfalls (mm): “0-2”, “2-5”, “5-10”, “>10”. The confusion matrices coefficients showed that low-intensity precipitation or “no precipitation”, as well as high-intensity precipitation, can be determined by a satellite with high accuracy as opposed to the ground-based weather station measurements. Thus, according to the "specificity" indicator, a precipitation class >10 mm has the highest level of correspondence of satellite data (H-SAF, GPM Late, GPM Early) to ground data. The low value of the "specificity" for the range of 0-2 mm is explained by the fact that satellite methods are able to detect very low values of precipitation intensity, while the station shows their absence – 0 mm. Thus, according to the values of the confusion matrices, we see that a large part of the values of ground measurements of precipitation in the range of 0-2 mm are shown by the satellite method as “2-5 mm” class. We can also see that the “2-5 mm” class by satellite has the most confusion with the 0-2 mm class by station (for H-SAF, GPM Late, GPM Early). But based on the high values of the "recall" for the range of 0-2 mm (for H-SAF, GPM Late, GPM Early), we can conclude that when the station does not show this amount of precipitation (0-2 mm), then the satellite also shows another class of values. The values of "precision" coefficient show that the satellite measurements are actually reliable. This means that presence or absence of precipitation may be determined precisely, since the highest value of the "precision" coefficient is typical for low and high amounts of precipitation (on average 0.76 and 0.66, respectively). Detected by satellites, heavy precipitation or no precipitation are also confirmed in most cases by ground stations. Based on the results of the validation, GPM and H-SAF satellite precipitation data products can be used for rainfall monitoring and considered as an additional source of meteorological information.