Evaluation of multiple satellite precipitation products and their potential utilities in the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin

Hydrological modeling in the Third Pole remains challenging due to the complex topography and scarcity of in-situ precipitation observations. In this study, we assessed five satellite precipitation products (SPPs) including TRMM3B42, PERSIANN-CDR, GPM-IMERG, CMORPH, and GSMaP, and simulated daily streamflow in the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin (YZRB) with VIC model. The performance of SPPs was evaluated by CC, RB, RMSE, POD and FAR, to compare with daily observations. Overall, all SPPs showed decreasing trends of precipitation from east to west compared to 10 km rainfall data. PERSIANN had the highest values of POD (0.65), RB (91.6%) and FAR (0.59) but worst performed in streamflow. CMORPH, GPM and TRMM fit well with the observations annually but overestimate the precipitation in the southeast during wet seasons. Simulation from GPM and CMORPH yield satisfactory results (NSE of 0.86 and 0.82, RE of − 20% and − 13%, respectively), while TRMM outperformed GPM in modeling runoff with smaller relative error. Results indicated the potential of GPM and CMORPH in providing alternative rainfall information in YZRB. Accurate evaluation of multi-source SPPs and their hydrological utility in YZRB would benefit further hydrometeorological studies and water resources management in this area.