Trend Analysis of Remotely Sensed Historical Rainfall in the Olifants River Watershed, South Africa

This study investigates the presence of climate change in the temporal variations of historical rainfall by utilising satellite-based precipitation data from 1993 to 2023 for the Olifants River watershed. Data were derived from the Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing (CHRS) Rainsphere system. The historical annual mean rainfall was found to be 621.45 mm, with the highest and lowest values observed in the year 2000 and 2015, respectively. A notable declining trend in annual rainfall was identified, while seasonal data showed a declining rainfall trend in Spring. It was also revealed that the spatial rainfall distribution from CHRS Rainsphere had little in common with the one derived from the observed rainfall data provided by the South African Weather Service.