Assessment of Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG) Precipitation Products in Northwest China

Abstract

This study evaluates the applicability of the IMERG satellite precipitation product in Northwest China using data from more than 6000 ground-level meteorological stations during the warm season (April–September) from 2016 to 2023. The evaluation spans climatological, annual, monthly, and daily time scales with different precipitation intensities. IMERG precipitation can well capture the spatial and temporal precipitation climatology, with precipitation decreasing from southeast to Northwest China, and peaking in August. The correlation coefficient (CC) between IMERG precipitation and ground-observed precipitation is 0.69. However, IMERG precipitation systematically overestimates precipitation at climatological, annual, and monthly scales, especially in areas with relatively low precipitation climatology. At the daily time scale, IMERG precipitation data can represent precipitation events very well, especially in the southeastern part of Northwest China. IMERG precipitation overestimates light rainfall while underestimating precipitation of other intensities. While IMERG precipitation performs well in detecting light rain events, its accuracy diminishes for heavier rainfall, highlighting limitations for monitoring extreme precipitation. The Probability of Detection (POD) for light rainfall events is consistently above 0.9, while for Torrential Rainfall events, the POD is below 0.7. These findings provide insights into the effective application of IMERG data in precipitation monitoring and forecasting in Northwest China.