Abstract
Reliable weather forecasts are valuable in a number of applications, such as, agriculture, hydropower, and weather-related disease outbreaks. Global weather forecasts are widely used, but detailed evaluation over specific regions is paramount for users and operational centers to enhance the usability of forecasts and improve their accuracy. This study presents evaluation of the Global Forecast System (GFS) medium-range (1 day – 15 day) precipitation forecasts in the nine sub-basins of the Nile basin using NASA’s Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals (IMERG) “Final Run” satellite-gauge merged rainfall observations. The GFS products are available at a temporal resolution of 3-6 hours, spatial resolution of 0.25°, and its version-15 products are available since 12 June 2019. GFS forecasts are evaluated at a temporal scale of 1-15 days, spatial scale of 0.25° to all the way to the sub-basin scale, and for a period of one year (15 June 2019 – 15 June 2020). The results show that performance of the 1-day lead daily basin-averaged GFS forecast performance, as measured through the modified Kling-Gupta Efficiency (KGE), is poor (0 < KGE < 0.5) for most of the sub-basins. The factors contributing to the low performance are: (1) large overestimation bias in watersheds located in wet climate regimes in the northern hemispheres (Millennium watershed, Upper Atbara & Setit watershed, and Khashm El Gibra watershed), and (2) lower ability in capturing the temporal dynamics of watershed-averaged rainfall that have smaller watershed areas (Roseires at 14,110 sq. km and Sennar at 13,895 sq. km). GFS has better bias for watersheds located in the dry parts of the northern hemisphere or wet parts of the southern hemisphere, and better ability in capturing the temporal dynamics of watershed-average rainfall for large watershed areas. IMERG Early has better bias than GFS forecast for the Millennium watershed but still comparable and worse bias for the Upper Atbara & Setit, and Khashm El Gibra watersheds. The variation in the performance of the IMERG Early could be partly explained by the number of rain gauges used in the reference IMERG Final product, as 16 rain gauges were used for the Millennium watershed but only one rain gauge over each Upper Atbara & Setit, and Khashm El Gibra watershed. A simple climatological bias-correction of IMERG Early reduces in the bias in IMERG Early over most watersheds, but not all watersheds. We recommend exploring methods to increase the performance of GFS forecasts, including post-processing techniques through the use of both near-real-time and research-version satellite rainfall products.
Increasing vertical resolution in US models to improve track forecasts of Hurricane Joaquin with HWRF as an example
