Papua New Guinea: Subnational Rainfall Indicators and CHIRPS Forecasts

WFP provides dekadal rainfall indicators for Papua New Guinea aggregated by subnational administrative units using CHIRPS v2 satellite imagery and CHIRPS-GEFS forecasts. The data tracks 10-day, 1-month, and 3-month rainfall totals alongside long-term averages and percentage anomalies. Records are updated up to six times per month to transition from initial forecasts to final observations.

Use Cases

• Monitoring drought risk by analyzing the rainfall anomaly percentage in the `rfq` column
• Evaluating agricultural water availability using the 3-month rolling aggregation `r3h`
• Validating climate forecasts by comparing `type`='forecast' records with subsequent 'final' observations

Strengths

• Provides 9 distinct rainfall indicators including 10-day, 1-month, and 3-month anomalies
• Uses standardized WFP Pcodes for subnational administrative unit mapping
• Includes `n_pixels` metadata to indicate the spatial data density for each aggregate

Limitations

• Satellite-derived CHIRPS data may have reduced accuracy in Papua New Guinea's high-altitude terrain compared to ground stations
• Final data products have a temporal lag, only becoming available mid-month for the previous month's dekads

Provenance

Source

World Food Programme (WFP) using CHIRPS v2 and CHIRPS-GEFS

Collection Method

Aggregation of Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation satellite imagery and in-situ station data

Freshness

Updated six times per month on the 1st, 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st, and 26th.

Geography

Papua New Guinea (subnational level)