Comparison of TRMM Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA)-3B43 version 6 and 7 products with rain gauge data from ocean buoys

Abstract

One of the most widely used high-resolution Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) research products, version 6 (V6) has gone through major changes, and consequently version 7 (V7) was recently released. In this study, these two recent versions of TMPA-3B43 product are compared with available rain gauge data from ocean buoys for a 13-year (1998–2010) period to evaluate the changes in error characteristics over the tropical oceans. The precipitation over high precipitation regimes is enhanced by 5–9% in the V7 product, primarily over the ocean. However, root mean square error is unexpectedly enhanced by 2–5% in V7 compared to V6, although the underestimation of high precipitation (more than 10 mm day−1) by V6 product is reduced by about 5–8% in the new version product.