Abstract: In this paper, the uncertainties of satellite precipitation products, both of Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) and widely used precipitation product—Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), were evaluated based on the data from five meteorological stations in the Silin Co Basin in the Tibetan Plateau during the period from April 2014 to March 2015. The accuracies of GPM and TRMM were studied using the correlation evaluation index (Person Correlation Coefficient R), Error statistical evaluation index (including the root mean square error RMSE and percent bias PB) and classification statistical evaluation index (BIAS, POD, FAR and HKS score). The results showed that: ① The accuracy of GPM was higher than that of TRMM at both daily and annual timescales, and the precipitation was significantly overestimated if the TRMM products were used; ② Although GPM performed better than TRMM in detecting weak precipitation events, there were some big flaws of both products in detecting the heavy precipitation events; ③ The accuracy of GPM was obviously increased with the increase of timescale.

Key words: ground observation, remote sensing precipitation product, GPM, TRMM, applicability evaluation, Tibetan Plateau