Rain for Peru and Ecuador (RAIN4PE)

RAIN4PE is a novel daily gridded precipitation dataset obtained by merging multi-source precipitation data (satellite-based Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation, CHIRP (Funk et al. 2015), reanalysis ERA5 (Hersbach et al. 2020), and ground-based precipitation) with terrain elevation using the random forest regression method. Furthermore, RAIN4PE is hydrologically corrected using streamflow data in catchments with precipitation underestimation through reverse hydrology. Hence, RAIN4PE is the only gridded precipitation product for Peru and Ecuador, which benefits from maximum available in-situ observations, multiple precipitation sources, elevation data, and is supplemented by streamflow data to correct the precipitation underestimation over páramos and montane catchments. The RAIN4PE data are available for the terrestrial land surface between 19°S-2°N and 82-67°W, at 0.1° spatial and daily temporal resolution from 1981 to 2015. The precipitation dataset is provided in netCDF format. For a detailed description of the RAIN4PE development and evaluation of RAIN4PE applicability for hydrological modeling of Peruvian and Ecuadorian watersheds, readers are advised to read Fernandez-Palomino et al. (2021).