Ok, so this post is a repeat of another, but I’ve just linked this blog to share over my myriad of social media accounts and wanted the extra exposure!

My first research paper looks at the interactions between the uncertainty in satellite rainfall estimates and hydrological models – particularly important in areas like sub-Saharan Africa which relies of satellites estimates of rainfall for timely data. The paper is free to view for a few more weeks using this link.

I have tagged the title with #HEPEX – this refers to the Hydrological Ensemble Prediction EXperiment, as group I try to be involved with and this work is relevant. It is the completion of work I presented in a blog for their website in Easter 2014.

Finally, I wrote a review of the paper for the GEES-ology blog –

“By Chris Skinner @cloudskinner

I recently had my first research article published – “Hydrological modelling using satellite rainfall estimates in a sparsely gauged river basin: The need for whole-ensemble calibration”. It has been accepted by the Journal of Hydrology, with which I am very pleased, and it is available to view for free until the 27th February 2015 here. If you are reading this after that date, I’m afraid you will need a subscription to the Journal to view it.

The problem the project was hoping to address is the issue of a lack of equipment available in many parts of the world which records rainfall. There are several methods of doing this, which I explain in an older post, but the most common ways are to use a network of rain-gauges or radar, both of which are expensive to install and maintain. For many nations, the measurement of rainfall is not a priority enough to invest in these networks but they would benefit greatly from having reasonable estimations of how much rain has fallen – it allows them to monitor water resources, forecast floods and droughts, and even predict how many crops will grow…”

Read it in full here.