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Accurate precipitation data in space and time are among the most important variables for analyzing, modelling and forecasting many hydrometeorological applications and hazards. For countries like Greece, which have a complex terrain and great spatial variability of precipitation, satellite precipitation products (SPPs) are an alternative source of precipitation information that could complement the sparse rain gauge network. The objective of this study is to evaluate the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG) V06B Final-run product over Greece for a 5-year period (January 2015 to December 2019) using as reference measurements from 263 rain gauges. The evaluation of IMERG is performed at multiple temporal (annual, monthly, daily) and spatial (country, region, grid) scales by employing several statistical and graphical methods. The rainfall detection capability of IMERG is examined with categorical verification metrics and the accuracy of the estimated rainfall amounts with continuous verification metrics. In addition, the performance of IMERG under different rainfall intensities, elevations and seasons is examined.

On the monthly and annual scale evaluation the intercomparison between the calibrated (IMERGcal) and uncalibrated (IMERGuncal) IMERG estimates revealed the superiority of IMERGcal, but on the same time it highlighted the weakness of the GPCC gauge-based calibration product over Greece. The monthly IMERGcal estimates could reproduce the annual cycle of precipitation with a slight overestimation of monthly precipitation (RBIAS = 5.1%). On a daily scale IMERGcal performed well on detecting rainfall events (POD = 0.77), but it also produced many false alarm events (FAR = 0.40) which are primarily found over the islands of Aegean and Ionian Sea and along the coastline of mainland Greece. The assessment of daily rainfall intensities by IMERGcal showed a moderate correlation across Greece (0.49), with overestimation of light and moderate precipitation events (0.4–20 mm/day) and underestimation of heavy rainfall events (>20 mm/day). On a regional scale, IMERGcal tends to underestimate the daily rainfall over the rainfall-prone western part of Greece because in addition to the smoothing of high rainfall values by the GPCC calibration, satellite sensors fail to detect the magnitude of orographic rainfall. The complete opposite situation was found over the Aegean and Ionian Sea and many areas of the coastline, with great overestimation of rainfall. The results of our study highlight the potentials and limitations of IMERG rainfall estimates over Greece and they can be very helpful for future users of IMERG in Greece.