Open AccessHydrologic Evaluation of NWP-Adjusted CMORPH Estimates of Hurricane-Induced Precipitation in the Southern Appalachians
Author(s) -
Xinxuan Zhang,
Emmanouil N. Anagnostou,
Humberto Vergara
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of hydrometeorology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.733
H-Index - 123
eISSN - 1525-755X
pISSN - 1525-7541
DOI - 10.1175/jhm-d-15-0088.1
Subject(s) - orography , environmental science , precipitation , climatology , quantitative precipitation estimation , meteorology , flood myth , satellite , flood forecasting , numerical weather prediction , terrain , hydrological modelling , data assimilation , hydrometeorology , surface runoff , geology , geography , cartography , archaeology , aerospace engineering , engineering , ecology , biology
Satellite-retrieved precipitation has the potential to support flood modeling in mountainous areas. However, to reach this potential satellite estimates need to be corrected for the severe underestimation exhibited in orography-induced heavy precipitation events (HPEs). This paper assesses an existing satellite precipitation error correction technique driven by high-resolution numerical weather prediction (NWP) simulations of HPEs in complex terrain. The study is based on NOAA Climate Prediction Center morphing technique (CMORPH) high-resolution precipitation estimates of six such events induced by hurricane landfalls in the southern Appalachian mountainous region. A distributed hydrological model (Coupled Routing and Excess Storage model) is applied to evaluate the impact of the proposed satellite precipitation error correction on flood simulations for 20 basins of various sizes in this mountainous region. The results demonstrate significant improvements due to the NWP-based adjustment technique in terms of both the precipitation error characteristics and corresponding runoff simulations. These improvements are shown to be comparable to those from the postprocessed gauge-adjusted CMORPH precipitation product, which is promising for advancing hydrologic uses of satellite rainfall in mountainous areas lacking ground observations.