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Increase in population has resulted in pressure for more land and water use for food security in Northeast Tanzania. This calls for proper understanding of spatial-temporal variations of quality and quantity of water to ensure sustainable management. The number of hydro-meteorological stations such as rainfall stations and flow measuring stations has not increased and even the functioning of the existing ones is deteriorating. Satellite rainfall estimates (SRE) are being used widely in place of gauge observations or to supplement gauge observations. However, rigorous validation is necessary to have some level of confidence in using the satellite products for different applications. This paper discusses the results of application of SRE over a data scarce tropical complex region in Northeast Tanzania. We selected river catchments found in two different climatological zones: the inland region mountains (i.e. Kikuletwa and Ruvu basins) and the coastal region mountains (i.e. Mkomazi, Luengera and Zigi basins), characterized by semi arid, sub-humid to humid tropical climate. Thus, the validation sites were ideal for testing the different SRE products. In this study, we evaluated two gauge corrected high resolution SRE products which combine both infrared and passive-microwave estimates; the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Prediction Center (NOAA-CPC) African Rainfall Estimation (RFE2) and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission product 3B42 (TRMM-3B42) using station network.

The accuracy of the products was evaluated through a comparison with available gauge data. The comparison was made on pair-wise (point to pixel) and sub-basin level with the reproduction of rainfall volume, rainfall intensity and consistency of rain and no-rain days. The SRE products performed reasonably well over both regions in detecting the occurrence of rainfall. The underestimation was mainly ascribed to topology and the coastal effect. Whereas, the overestimation was mainly ascribed to evaporation of rainfall in the dry atmosphere under the cloud base. Local calibration of satellite-derived rainfall estimates and merging of satellite estimates with locally available rain-gauge observations are some of the approaches that could be employed to alleviate these problems. Although, the products did not show strong correlation to the observed rainfall over the complex tropical mountainous catchments considered, they have high potential to augment gauge observations in data sparse basins. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.