@article{fdi:010091041, title = {{E}valuation of gridded rainfall products in three {W}est {A}frican basins}, author = {{G}oudiaby, {O}. and {B}odian, {A}. and {D}ezetter, {A}lain and {D}iouf, {I}. and {O}gilvie, {A}ndrew}, editor = {}, language = {{ENG}}, abstract = {{I}n recent years, accessing rainfall data from ground observation networks maintained by national meteorological services in {W}est {A}frica has become increasingly challenging. {T}his is primarily due to high acquisition costs and the often sparse distribution of rainfall gauges across the region, which limits their use in hydrological studies and related research. {A}t the same time, the rising availability of precipitation products derived from satellite/earth observations, reanalysis datasets, and in situ measurements presents exciting prospects for hydrological applications. {N}onetheless, these datasets constitute indirect measurements, necessitating rigorous validation against ground-based rainfall data. {T}his study comprehensively assesses twenty-three gridded rainfall products, including sixteen from satellites, six from reanalysis data, and one from in situ measurements, across the {S}enegal, {G}ambia, and {C}asamance {R}iver basins. {P}erformance evaluation is conducted across distinct climatic zones, both pre- and post-resampling against observed rainfall data gathered from forty-nine rainfall stations over a six-year period (2003-2008). {E}valuation criteria include the {K}ling-{G}upta {E}fficiency ({KGE}) and {P}ercentage of {B}ias ({PBIAS}) metrics, assessed at daily, monthly, and seasonal time steps. {T}he results reveal distinct performance levels among the evaluated rainfall products. {RFE}, {ARC}2, and {CPC} notably yield the highest {KGE} scores at the daily time step, while {GPCP}, {CHIRP}, {CHIRPS}, {RFE}, {MSWEP}, {ARC}2, {CPC}, {TAMSAT}, and {CMORPHCRT} demonstrate superior performance at the monthly time step. {D}uring the rainy season, these products generally exhibit robustness. {H}owever, rainfall estimates derived from reanalysis datasets ({ERA}5, {EWEMBI}, {MERRA}2, {PGF}, {WFDEICRU}, and {WFDEIGPCC}) perform poorly in the studied basins. {B}ased on the {PBIAS} metric, most products tend to underestimate precipitation values, while only {PERSIANN} and {PERSIANNCCS} lead to significant overestimations. {S}patially, optimal performance of the products is observed in the {C}asamance basin and the {S}udanian and {S}ahelian climatic zones within the {G}ambia and {S}enegal basins. {C}onversely, in the {G}uinean zone of the {G}ambia and {S}enegal {R}ivers, the rainfall products displayed the poorest performance.}, keywords = {gridded precipitation products ; {C}asamance {R}iver ; {G}ambia {R}iver ; {S}enegal {R}iver ; {W}est {A}frica ; {SENEGAL} ; {AFRIQUE} {DE} {L}'{OUEST}}, booktitle = {}, journal = {{H}ydrology}, volume = {11}, numero = {6}, pages = {75 [23 ]}, year = {2024}, DOI = {10.3390/hydrology11060075}, URL = {https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010091041}, }