Performance assessment of merged multisatellite precipitation datasets over diverse climate and complex topography

Abstract Precise estimation of precipitation over complex topography and diverse climate is a challenging task, especially with a limited number of rain gauges (RGs) in developing countries like Pakistan. Satellite precipitation products (SPPs), alternatives to RGs, have been extensively evaluated during the last few decades across different regions of the world, most specifically over Pakistan. Therefore, this chapter summarizes the potentials and limitations/controversies of several individual SPPs evaluated over Pakistan and the importance of developing merged precipitation datasets (MPDs) to address the high magnitude of errors over complex topography and diverse climatic zones. SPPs presented dependency on topography, seasonality, and precipitation intensity; therefore, most of the SPPs depicted poor performance over the glacial and humid zones of Pakistan. On the other hand, MPDs combine the advantages and significantly reduce the error of individual SPPs, and have high potentials for hydrological applications. Several MPDs have been developed and extensively evaluated over Pakistan on spatial, temporal, and seasonal scales. Results depicted that MPDs are the best alternatives to SPPs and having high potentials for hydrological, meteorological, and climate studies. The study recommends modifications in merging algorithms or further development of regional MPDs, particularly for complex topographic zones.