[Figure 2]
However, the decline and significant gaps in gauge measurement, coupled
with the unavailability of historical meteorological data for research
are key constraints that limits knowledge in the Congo basin. Hence, the
intricacies surrounding precipitation distribution over the Congo basin
was therefore assessed by comparing two observational reference gauged
precipitation products, the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre
(GPCC, Schneider et al., 2014) and Climate Research Unit (CRU TS4.01,
Harris et al., 2014) derived precipitation
(http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/cru/) using analysis of variance and other
metrics (linear rates, correlations, and cumulative departures). GPCC
and CRU precipitation estimates over the Congo basin during different
climatological periods seem to be somewhat consistent with a range of
correlation values between 0.80 and 1.00 (Fig. 2a).