Estimation of extreme rainfall through a regional analysis and satellite data approach in Cusco, Peru

The frequency and magnitude of extreme climatic precipitation events have increased significantly in several countries of the world, including Peru. These events cause economic and human losses, especially in developing countries. Information and methodologies to prevent or design strategies to deal with them are scarce or non-existent. The aim of this research was to analyze the capacity of the IMERG (Integrated MultisatellitE Retrievals) satellite product of the GPM (Global Precipitation Measurement) and observed data from meteorological stations using a mixed approach to estimate the distribution of extreme rainfall in Cusco region located in southern Per & uacute;. This mixed approach took advantage of both sources of information, such as the strength of the data observed over many years and hourly temporal resolution of the satellite product. The methodology was based on a growth curve for each homogeneous region, correction factor and parameters that estimate the intensity and duration function for the entire Cusco region. The results were evaluated by cross-validation between daily precipitation values obtained from the IMERG product, mixed approach and observed precipitation for return periods of 10, 20, 100, 500 and 1 000 years. The results suggest that the combination of observed and rainfall data from the IMERG satellite may be an alternative to estimate extreme rainfall in the Cusco region.