Applicability of TRMM Precipitation for Hydrologic Modeling in a Basin in the Northeast Brazilian Agreste

Abstract Determining precipitation using remote sensing is gaining space in hydrologic studies, helping make up for the lack of data in many regions of Brazil. The products from satellite TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) are widely applied in studies in Brazil, but there are still few results about their applicability for hydrologic modeling in the Northeast Region, which is characterized by an irregular precipitation regime. The objective of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of using the TRMM 3B42 V7 data for hydrologic modeling in the Japaratuba river basin in Sergipe at three timescales: daily, every ten days, and monthly. The comparative analysis between the rainfall data from rain gauges and TRMM did not indicate satisfactory adequacy at these studied scales, since the TRMM data underestimated the total rainfall for all stations used in the study. However, for the hydrologic modeling, acceptable values were obtained for the efficiency coefficients evaluated only for the ten-day and monthly scales.