Exploring the rainfall data from satellites to monitor rainfall induced landslides – A case study

Manoj Kumar Thakur, Srinivas Desamsetti, A. Naga Rajesh, K. Koteswara Rao, M. S. Narayanan, T. V. Lakshmi Kumar

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10 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the present study, rainfall estimates from TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) and GPM (Global Precipitation Mission) constellation of satellites are analyzed in the context of rainfall induced landslide occurrences over Western Ghats (WG) of India along with the daily gridded rainfall data developed by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting (ARW) numerical model simulations. This study aims to analyze the pattern of changes in rain rate and total rainfall triggering the large landslides over WG in TMPA (product of TRMM) and IMERG (GPM product) rainfall data sets. As a case study, performance of IMERG V5 is assessed during Malin landslide which occurred on 30 July 2014 (initial GPM era). Results indicate that IMERG shows significant increase in rain rate (>60 mm/h in half-hourly data) during Malin landslide. Near real-time IMERG V5, underestimates the rain rate but increasing pattern of rain-rate are observed which is similar to that of final version. Spatial pattern of ARW rainfall output is also close to the satellite and IMD rainfall patterns. We propose that IMERG V5 can be used as an indicator to reliably depict the higher rainfall scenario over the sites that are vulnerable to rainfall induced landslide occurrence over the WG region.
Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalAdvances in Space Research
DOIs
StatePublished - May 21 2020

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