[Objective] The spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall erosion in the Jinsha river basin from 1998 to 2015 were analyzed, to provide references for optimizing the quantitative prediction of soil loss in watershed and the planning of soil and water conservation.[Methods] The rainfall data of the meteorological stations were used to verify the applicability of TRMM precipitation data. Upon which, the rainfall erosion force in Jinsha river basin was estimated using daily precipitation model. The estimation was conducted by combining with weather stations data, TRMM and DEM data, and in the support of Arc/Info software's map algebra operation function.[Results] The TRMM 3B42 rainfall data and weather station precipitation data were used to estimate the rainfall erosion force in Jinsha river basin for many years, and the average overall accuracy reached 82%, illustrating that the estimation of rainfall erosion by the two sourced data was within the reasonable range of error. The estimated rainfall erosion force had regional difference and elevation difference, from the southeast to the northwest, it had a general diminishing trend; the smaller the elevation was, the greater the rainfall erosion. The inter annual change in the basin also had spatial differentiation, and the overall temporal trend was decreasing.[Conclusion] It is feasible to apply TRMM 3B42 precipitation data to the annual mean rainfall erosion force estimation in the Jinsha River basin. However, the consistency of each site's estimation results was different, and the applicability of certain years was influenced by extreme weather.