Comparing rainfall estimates derived from rain gages and satellite images at the eastern Mediterranean region

Yiannis Kamarianakis, Nektarios Chrysoulakis, Haralambos Feidas, Georgios Kokolatos

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

This article aims to test a satellite infrared (IR) technique for estimating rainfall over Mediterranean. On that purpose, we use 6hr, 12hr and 24hr cumulative rainfall measurements, obtained from a large set of gages located at the eastern Mediterranean region, during October 2004. Two kinds of comparisons are undertaken. First, rainfall estimates derived from satellite images are projected to the locations of the rain gages and then compared to the actual gage measurements. Results in this case coincide with those reported in Barret (1988): IR satellite observations tend to overestimate precipitation. To obviate this, we seek optimal transformations for the IR satellite data via using statistical tools, namely the Box-Cox method and Linear Mixed models. Next, we perform spatial interpolation to the rain gage measurements and compare the derived surfaces to the ones obtained from satellite images for regions having high spatial density in gages. In both cases the estimation error is positively correlated to the rainfall level; we quantify this dependence using appropriate statistical tools.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings 2006 - The 9th AGILE International Conference on Geographic Information Science: "Shaping the Future of Geographic Information Science in Europe", AGILE 2006
Pages15-20
Number of pages6
StatePublished - 2006
Externally publishedYes
Event9th AGILE International Conference on Geographic Information Science: "Shaping the Future of Geographic Information Science in Europe", AGILE 2006 - Visegrad, Hungary
Duration: Apr 20 2006Apr 22 2006

Other

Other9th AGILE International Conference on Geographic Information Science: "Shaping the Future of Geographic Information Science in Europe", AGILE 2006
Country/TerritoryHungary
CityVisegrad
Period4/20/064/22/06

Keywords

  • Ground-based data
  • Rainfall estimation
  • Satellite based data
  • Spatial interpolation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Information Systems
  • Geography, Planning and Development

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