HR: 1340h
AN: H33A-0976    [Abstracts]
TI: Analysis of TRMM and gauge rainfall in the La Plata River Basin in South America for hydrologic predictions
AU: * Demaria, E M
EM: edemaria@hwr.arizona.edu
AF: Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, University of Arizona, 1133 E James E. Rogers Way, Tucson, AZ 85721, United States
AU: Valdes, J B
EM: jvaldes@u.arizona.edu
AF: Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210072, Room 206, Tucson, AZ 85721, United States
AU: Rodriguez, D A
EM: dandres@cptec.inpe.br
AF: Centro de PrevisàŁo de Tempo e Estudos ClimàĄticos, Rodovia Presidente Dutra, Km 40, Cachoeira Paulista, SP 12630, Brazil
AU: Durcik, M
EM: mdurcik@hwr.arizona.edu
AF: SAHRA (Sustainability of Semi-Arid Regions and Riparian Hydrology), University of Arizona, Marshall Bldg. 845 N. Park Ave., Room 545.P.O.Box 210158-B, Tucson, AZ 85721, United States
AB: The accurate estimation of rainfall is crucial for flood and drought monitoring, hydroelectric generation, navigability of water bodies and water resources management. In developing regions of the world, available meteorological information is obtained from a coarse network of precipitation and streamflow gauges. In this context, satellite estimated precipitation constitutes an invaluable source of information to be used in the prediction of major flood events occurrence or in the estimation of seasonal to interannual streamflows. The La Plata River Basin, which is the second largest river basin in South America covering 3.2 x 106 km2, maintains one of the most densely populated regions in South America where natural fluctuations in precipitation and streamflows deeply affect the economic and social equilibrium of the region. Due to the heavy dependence of the emergent economies in the region on the water resources of the basin, it is necessary to quantify the biases of existent satellite products relative to gauge measurements in order to understand how errors in satellite-derived precipitation could affect simulated hydrological fluxes. Post-real time TRMM products (3B42 V.6), for the period 1998-2006, are contrasted to daily gridded precipitation available at 0.25 degree which have been generated with rain gauge information existing in the basin (Liebmann and Allured, 2005). Spatial and temporal maps of satellite errors were created as the difference between TRMM and observations. These maps are generated at different temporal scales of importance for hydrologic applications such as daily, pentad or decadal and for the four seasons. The spatial errors allow us to identify regions on the basin where satellite estimates over/underestimate precipitation amounts and intensities. Results of the study estimate the impact of error structure existent in precipitation estimates on the simulation of the hydrologic cycle and allow us to asses what is the potential value of satellite products for seasonal to interannual hydrologic prediction of runoff and for water resources management.
DE: 1817 Extreme events
DE: 1821 Floods
DE: 1840 Hydrometeorology
DE: 1843 Land/atmosphere interactions (1218, 1631, 3322)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting