Satellite inspired hydrology in an uncertain future: a H SAF and HEPEX workshop

The H SAF concept was born on the requirements of the hydrologic community and is focused on
the development and operational delivery of satellite products that can be used in work pursued by
the National Hydrological Services and water management institutions. In H SAF program are
available two types of validation on precipitation products: quality assessment and hydrological
validation. For the first one, the H SAF Precipitation Product (PP) Validation Group (VG) analyses
annually all the PP released by the consortium in order to evaluate their performance over time. On
the European area validation is carried out by comparison with ground radar and raingauge data
available within the consortium. For products with hemispherical/global coverage the comparison
is performed with precipitation estimates by the DPR (Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar) product
onboard of GPM satellite that combines both Ku and Ka frequencies. In the second one, the H SAF
Hydrological Program is focused on an assessment of PP from a hydrological point of view: it
includes products interfacing with hydrologic models. The methodology developed, models and
basins used, and instruments applied will be briefly described in order to show results achieved by
the H SAF PP.