Validation of GPM IMERG extreme precipitation in the Peninsular Malaysia and Philippines by station and radar data

Abstract

Extreme precipitation is ubiquitous in the Maritime Continent (MC) but poorly predicted numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. NWP evaluation against accurate measures of heavy precipitation is essential to improve their forecasting skill. Here we examine the potential utility of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrieval for GPM (IMERG) for NWP evaluation of extreme precipitation in the MC. For that purpose, we use radar data in Subang (Malaysia) and station data from the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) in Malaysia and the Philippines. We find that earlier studies may have underestimated IMERG performances in the MC due to large spatial sampling errors of ground precipitation measurements, especially during extreme precipitation conditions. We recommend using the 95th percentile for NWP evaluation of extreme daily and sub-daily precipitation against IMERG. At higher percentiles, the IMERG rainfall rates tend to diverge from ground observation and may therefore be treated with caution.