Adequacy of TRMM satellite rainfall data in driving the SWAT modeling of Tiaoxi catchment (Taihu lake basin, China)

摘要

Highlights?Rainfallwas obtained fromTRMMdata for the period 1999–2008.?We model runoff and Water balance in the Tiaoxi catchment.?The gauge-adjusted TRMM 3B42 data can be a valuable tool for hydrologic modeling.AbstractSpatial rainfall data is an essential input to Distributed Hydrological Models (DHM), and a significant contributor to hydrological model uncertainty. Model uncertainty is higher when rain gauges are sparse, as is often the case in practice. Currently, satellite-based precipitation products increasingly provide an alternative means to ground-based rainfall estimates, in which case a rigorous product assessment is required before implementation. Accordingly, the twofold objective of this work paper was the real-world assessment of both (a) the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) rainfall product using gauge data, and (b) theTRMMproduct’s role in forcing data for hydrologic simulations in the area of t