Evaluation of satellite-derived agro-climate variables in the Northern Great Plains of the United States

The climate of the United States Northern Great Plains region is highly variable. Modelling of agriculture in this region and similar locations depends on the availability and quality of satellite and ground data for agro-climate variables. We evaluated tropical rainfall measuring mission (TRMM) multi-satellite preparation analysis (TMPA) precipitation, atmospheric infrared sounder (AIRS) surface air temperature, and AIRS relative air humidity (RH). A significant bias was found within the temperature and RH products and no bias but an insufficient rain event detection skill in the precipitation product (probability of detection *0.3). A linear correction of the temperature product removed the bias as well as lowered the root mean square deviation (RMSD). The bias-corrections for RH led to increased RMSD or worse correlation. For precipitation, the correlation between the satellite product and ground data improved if cumulative precipitation or only precipitation during the growing season was used.