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Satellite-based precipitation data are a viable source of information in data-sparse regions and are particularly valuable for hydrological modelling applications. Several studies of satellite-based precipitation focus on monthly or greater timescales, but a relatively fewer number have been done on the daily or sub-daily scales. Also, biases in satellite-based precipitation data are often region-specific and such information is important for quantifying input errors in hydrological models. Our study builds upon these needs by examining biases in daily precipitation data for a watershed in the southeastern United States. We observed biases that occur seasonally and by magnitude. Seasonally, precipitation correlates well in most seasons but summer, likely due to the sporadic nature of convective precipitation that is a common precipitation mechanism in this region during the summer. Daily precipitation biases are around 5 mm, but the sign of the bias varies by season, with positive biases in all seasons bu...

Water is essential to life in the Earth system. The water cycle components that sustain life are becoming more scarce and polluted. The most recent (1999-2004) drought experienced in the southwestern United States is the seventh worst in the approximately 500-year proxy tree-ring record. As a result, many regions contemplated drought emergencies in which severe water restrictions are implemented. Though larger weather and climate processes likely control drought processes, there is increasing evidence that anthropogenic or human-related activities can significantly alter precipitation processes. Urbanization is an example of anthropogenic forcing. Recent studies continue to provide evidence that urban environments can modify or induce precipitation under a specific set of conditions. Arid and semi-arid regions of the southwestern United States and other parts of the world are rapidly developing and placing greater demands on the environmental system. In the past fifty years, Phoenix has expanded from a predominantly agricultural center to an urbanized region with extent 700 percent larger than its size in the middle of the twentieth century. Riyadh's population grew from about a half million people in 1972 to almost two million by 2000. Saudi Arabia experienced urbanization later than many other countries; in the early 1970s its urban-rural ratio was still about 1:3. By 1990 the ratio had reversed to about 3:l. In the mid-1970s Riyadh's population was increasing by about 10 percent a year. Irrigation also significantly increased between 1972 and 1990 southeast of Riyadh. The study employs a 108-year precipitation historical data record, global climate observing network observations and satellite data to identify possible anomalies in rainfall in and around two major arid urban areas, Phoenix, Arizona and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It provides statistically sound evidence that rainfall distribution and magnitude is statistically different in post-urban than in pre-urban (1900-1950) Phoenix. The study hypothesis that a complex interaction between the city landscape, irrigated lands, and nearby mountains have created preferred regions for rainfall development. The study also provides early evidence that rapidly urbanizing parts of the arid Middle East may also be experiencing different precipitation regimes in response to urbanization and irrigation.

Scholars from antiquity until today have observed and speculated on how human activity shapes the Earth system (Ruddiman 2003; Von Storch and Stehr 2006; Yow 2007). Noted scholar Paul Crutzen has stated,humans have become a geologic agent comparable to erosion and eruptions . . . it seems appropriate to emphasize the central role of mankind in geology and ecology by proposing to use the term “anthropocene” for the current geological epoch.