EVALUATION OF WATER TABLE FLUCTUATION USING IMERG GPM FINAL RUN SATELLITE PRECIPITATION PRODUCTS IN THE PAMPEAN PLAINS, ARGENTINA

The aim for this research is to evaluate shallow aquifers recharge in plain areas where meteorological data is scarce or lacks of precision. This is especially useful in remote or isolated areas where there's no ground-based observation station and in developing countries where access to information is not always possible or is only partial. This could be of great value for disaster response and recovery, climate change, hydrological, environmental and agricultural research. The main focus of this study is to assess the utility of the data products Integrated Multisatellite Retrieval for Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG GPM) products in the hydrological basin characterization. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission is an international network of satellites that provide global observations of rain and snow.

Multiple hydrologic studies in the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina were selected, were water-table fluctuation and precipitation data was available. The data was digitized and integrated into a processing environment, along with the IMERG GPM dataset to create a simple index to compare the behavior of WTF fluctuations, ground-based precipitation data and IMERG precipitation data. IMERG GPM data was calculated using zonal stats for the full basin extents.

The resulting comparison shows that the IMERG GPM Final Run products have a good performance in the characterization of recharge models of shallow aquifers in plain areas, indicating that IMERG precipitation could be potentially used when ground-station precipitation data is unavailable.

Keywords: GPM; IMERG; environmental; hydrology; water table fluctuation;