Articles | Volume 29, issue 19
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-4847-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-4847-2025
Research article
 | 
30 Sep 2025
Research article |  | 30 Sep 2025

Evaluation of remote-sensing- and reanalysis-based precipitation products for agro-hydrological studies in the semi-arid tropics of Tamil Nadu

Aatralarasi Saravanan, Daniel Karthe, Selvaprakash Ramalingam, and Niels Schütze

Cited articles

Adler, R. F., Huffman, G. J., Chang, A., Ferraro, R., Xie, P. P., Janowiak, J., Rudolf, B., Schneider, U., Curtis, S., Bolvin, D., Gruber, A., Susskind, J., Arkin, P., and Nelkin, E.: The version-2 global precipitation climatology project (GPCP) monthly precipitation analysis (1979–present), J. Hydrometeorol., 4, 1147–1167, 2003. 
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Arumugam, S., Ashok, K. R., Kulshreshtha, S. N., Vellangany, I., and Govindasamy, R.: Yield variability in rainfed crops as influenced by climate variables: A micro level investigation into agro-climatic zones of Tamil Nadu, India, Int. J. Clim. Chang. Str., 7, 442–459, 2013. 
Ashouri, H., Hsu, K. L., Sorooshian, S., Braithwaite, D. K., Knapp, K. R., Cecil, L. D., Nelson, B. R., and Prat, O. P.: PERSIANN-CDR Daily Precipitation Climate Data Record from Multisatellite Observations for Hydrological and Climate Studies, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 96 , 69–71, 2015. 
Balaganesh, G., Malhotra, R., Sendhil, R., Sirohi, S., Maiti, S., Ponnusamy, K., and Sharma, A. K.: Development of composite vulnerability index and district level mapping of climate change induced drought in Tamil Nadu, India, Ecol. Indic., 113, 106197, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106197, 2020. 
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Short summary
In water-scarce regions, precipitation is a highly variable and essential resource for crop production. Developing countries like India have an uneven distribution of rain gauges, so reliance on satellite- and reanalysis-based precipitation products is critical for their prudent management. Hence, this study statistically evaluated different precipitation products against station data for water-scarce regions in Tamil Nadu and found that the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis version 5 Land (ERA5-Land) performed the best, followed by the Multi-Source Weighted-Ensemble Precipitation (MSWEP).
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