[Quick Report] Monitoring extreme heavy rainfall in UAE by Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP)

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) experienced record rainfall on April 16, 2024. In the country where the majority of the land is desert, the precipitation levels were reported to be more than twice the annual average, resulting in flood damage in many regions.
JAXA is monitoring the precipitation from space through the Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP). The present report is an analysis of precipitation in the UAE.

Figure 1. Hourly mean precipitation [mm/h] observed by GSMaP on April 16, 2024

Figure 2 left shows the daily mean precipitation for April 16, 2024, calculated from GSMaP statistical data. It captures more than 100 mm of rainfall in a single day over a wide area of the UAE.
Figure 2 right shows the extreme heavy rainfall index for the same time period. The extreme heavy rainfall index shows areas where precipitation was equal to or greater than the top several percent of rainfall intensity compared to the average rainfall over the same 24-hour in the previous 22 years. Large areas of the UAE have dark pink areas, indicating extremely heavy rainfall with a frequency that is rare compared to historical statistics.