Articles | Volume 30, issue 21
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-6701-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-6701-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Design and trial implementation of a continental-scale, kilometre-resolution hourly precipitation analysis for Australia using satellite, radar and gauges
Yuhang Zhang
Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
Andrew J. Frost
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Bureau of Meteorology, Sydney, NSW 1300, Australia
Jayaram Pudashine
Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia
Blair Trewin
Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia
Carlos Velasco-Forero
Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia
Chun-Hsu Su
Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia
Vincent Villani
Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia
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Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
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Recently, we have seen multi-year droughts tending to cause shifts in the relationship between rainfall and streamflow. In shifted catchments that have not recovered, an average rainfall year produces less streamflow today than it did pre-drought. We take a multi-disciplinary approach to understand why these shifts occur, focusing on Australia's over-10-year Millennium Drought. We evaluate multiple hypotheses against evidence, with particular focus on the key role of groundwater processes.
Qichun Yang, Quan J. Wang, Andrew W. Western, Wenyan Wu, Yawen Shao, and Kirsti Hakala
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 941–954, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-941-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-941-2022, 2022
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Forecasts of evaporative water loss in the future are highly valuable for water resource management. These forecasts are often produced using the outputs of climate models. We developed an innovative method to correct errors in these forecasts, particularly the errors caused by deficiencies of climate models in modeling the changing climate. We apply this method to seasonal forecasts of evaporative water loss across Australia and achieve significant improvements in the forecast quality.
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Short summary
This study develops and tests a new system that combines satellite, radar, and rain gauge measurements to produce hourly rainfall maps at 2 km resolution across Australia. The results show improved rainfall estimates and better representation of local rainfall patterns compared with existing products. The system can support real-time rainfall monitoring and reconstruction of historical rainfall, and provides a practical approach that could also be applied in other regions.
This study develops and tests a new system that combines satellite, radar, and rain gauge...
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