Evaluation of gridded precipitation datasets and their application capacities in Vietnam

Abstract

   Spatial rainfall distribution information plays important role in water resources simulation and management problems. Due to the low density of rain gauge network, the use of gridded precipitation datasets could improve the simulation of spatial precipitation distribution. This study evaluates two popular gridded precipitation datasets - Aphrodite and ERA-Interim for Vietnam in comparison with observed data of 352 rain gauge stations. The results show that, annual precipitation of two gridded precipitation datasets are lower than the observation (-1mm/day). The correlation coefficient of annual precipitation between two datasets and observation are 63% (Aphrodite) and 30% (ERA-Interim) on average. The annual maximum of daily precipitation of two datasets are smaller than the observation about 30-40%.