With the development of remote sensing technology, several spatial sources for measuring precipitation have become available: Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) data are of particular interest. The CHIRPS product was used, evaluated, and compared within the Tensift basin located in west-central Morocco, for the period 1990 to 2017, using 11 meteorological stations. Four statistical parameters were used to evaluate CHIRPS performance, namely rain gauge measurements at multiple time scales (monthly, seasonal, and annual). Using the standard precipitation index as a drought indicator, the applicability of this long-term satellite precipitation product for drought monitoring was investigated for the period 1981 to 2019. The results show close agreement with observed precipitation data at different time scales (monthly, seasonal, and annual). At the monthly scale, the correlation coefficients vary between 0.56 and 0.86. In addition, a better correlation with observed data was obtained at the seasonal and annual scales. In the meantime, CHIRPS has obtained a good BIAS score and a lower error rate in the different time scales. Based on high-resolution long-term CHIRPS, it is found that the Tensift basin experienced eight severe droughts during the last four decades with the longest one in 2000 to 2002 for 26 months and the driest one in 2019 with drought affected area up to 100%. Droughts occurred frequently in all parts of the Tensift basin, and the plain of Tensift seems to experience more long-term and extreme drought events. |
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Satellites
Meteorology
Climatology
Statistical analysis
Environmental sensing
Infrared radiation
Meteorological satellites