The Potential Utilization of Satellite Derived Rainfall in a Data-Scarce Basin

This study assessed the potential for the use of satellite derived rainfall in a data-scarce basin like the Black Volta in West Africa. Using a point to pixel approach, accumulations of ground measurements on daily, monthly and annual time scales were compared with accumulations derived from 0.1° resolution daily gridded satellite Rainfall Estimates (RFE). The results from the analysis of the RFE data showed monthly correlations ranged from 0.76 to 0.92 when compared with the rain gauge measurements. These results obtained, indicate “good” to “very good” in terms of correlation (r) for the monthly and annual datasets. The study found that the use of satellite derived rainfall, like the RFE from FEWSNET, in the basin would be of great benefit considering the difficulties in accessing data both locally and from the other riparian countries; but its analysis and use should be on the monthly and annual scales.