We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Incidence-Angle Dependency of TRMM PR Rain Estimates.
- Authors
Hirose, Masafumi; Shimizu, Shuji; Oki, Riko; Iguchi, Toshio; Short, David A.; Nakamura, Kenji
- Abstract
The incidence-angle differences of estimated surface rainfall obtained from the precipitation radar (PR) on board the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite were investigated. The bias before the orbit boost in August 2001 relative to the near-nadir statistics was 2.7%% over the ocean and −5.8%% over land. After the boost, the bias was −3.2%% and −9.5%%, respectively. These biases were further quantified with respect to error sources, that is, the beam mismatch correction error, detection capability of storms with low-level storm-top height, and residual effects. For shallow storms lower than 3 km, most incidence-angle differences were caused by main lobe contamination. For nonshallow storms, several error factors resulted in 5.3%% overestimates over the ocean and 5.1%% underestimates over land for the period before the boost. The remaining uncertainty in local low-level profiles was identified as a controversial issue. The bias-corrected dataset updates the interannual variation in rainfall obtained from the TRMM PR. The increasing rainfall features and recent high-rainfall years were consistent with prior studies based on other microwave sensors. The coherent signals and slight differences in the temporal variation compared with the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) data indicate the importance of further internal and cross validations based on long-term observation by multiple sensors.
- Subjects
TROPICS; RAINFALL; METEOROLOGICAL precipitation measurement; INCIDENCE functions; RADAR meteorology; PRECIPITATION variability; STATISTICAL bias
- Publication
Journal of Atmospheric & Oceanic Technology, 2012, Vol 29, Issue 2, p192
- ISSN
0739-0572
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1175/JTECH-D-11-00067.1