Runoff simulation performance of multi-source precipitation products in small watersheds of different climatic regions in the USA

There are uncertainties in the hydrological application of precipitation data products in different climate zones. In this study, the precipitation data of NOAA-CPC-US is used as a reference to evaluate the accuracy of satellite precipitation data products, such as PERSIANN, GPM-IMERG, radar StageIV, and climate model ERA5, in different climate zones in the USA. The results show that StageIV has the best estimation accuracy in different climatic zones, followed by GPM-IMERG, PERSIANN, and ERA5 numerical model. The data products were used to drive the CREST distributed hydrological model to evaluate their runoff simulation effectiveness. StageIV and NOAA-CPC-US have a better effect in runoff simulation of different climate zones to meet runoff simulation. The GPM-IMERG and PERSIANN have differed runoff simulation abilities in different climate zones, with low stability, and their simulation abilities are better in low latitude climate zones than in high latitude climate zones.