Assessing the skill of gridded satellite and reanalysis precipitation products over in East and Southern Africa

Validation of gridded precipitation products (GPP) increases the users’ confidence and highlights possible improvements in algorithms to handle complex rain-forming processes. We evaluated skill three GGPs (CHIRPS-v2, CHELSA, TerraClimate) estimating rain gauge observations compared trends derived from these across East Southern Africa (ESA) region. used Taylor diagrams Kling-Gupta Efficiency (KGE) assess accuracy. A modified Mann-Kendal test a Sen’s slope estimator were utilized determine trends’ significance magnitude, respectively. The GPPs had varied performance over temporal altitudinal ranges. GPPs, at monthly scale, was generally high but showed lower elevations 1500 masl, especially during October-November-December (OND) season. performed equally well between 1001 – masl elevation range. CHELSA-v2.1 most accurate 0-500 lowest both 501 1000 above elevations, which caused over-estimation annual seasonal mountainous terrain large inland water bodies. quantified revealed spatial-temporal variability. Generally, CHIRPS-v2 TC data substantial convergence except Tanzania. Our results emphasize importance validating climate datasets avoid error propagation different models applications. Moreover, we demonstrate that new or higher-resolution are not always since an algorithm update can introduce artifacts biases.