Editorial Type:
Article
Article Type:
Research Article

Long-Term Comparison of Collocated Instantaneous Rain Retrievals from the TRMM Microwave Imager and Precipitation Radar over the Ocean

Eun-Kyoung Seo Kongju National University, Chungnam, South Korea

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Svetla Hristova-Veleva Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, and Joint Institute For Regional Earth System Science and Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California

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Guosheng Liu Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida

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Mi-Lim Ou National Institute of Meteorological Research, Korea Meteorological Administration, Seoul, South Korea

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Geun-Hyeok Ryu National Institute of Meteorological Research, Korea Meteorological Administration, Seoul, South Korea

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Print Publication:
01 Apr 2015
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-14-0235.1
Page(s):
867–879
Restricted access

Abstract

Version-7 (V7) rain rates retrieved by the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) are spatially and temporally collocated over the ocean and compared at TMI footprint scale for the summer months of 16 years, within the TRMM coverage belt from 38°S to 38°N latitude. This study puts special emphasis on examining how the estimates from the two instruments compare with each other for different rain types and for different geographical locations. It is found that, although the two rain-rate estimates agree with each other extremely well (only 2.6% difference) when averaged globally and over all rain types, large discrepancies (~60%) are observed if comparisons are conducted for rain pixels of only convective type or for regions where convective rain types dominate. For the stratiform rain type, the TMI and PR retrievals compare well with a difference of ~13% globally. In particular, the partial beam filling seems to be less important to the underestimation of TMI rain against PR rain than the spatial variability of rain. These findings point to the existing need for better understanding of the remote-sensing physics of convective rain. Such an improved understanding is critically important to decreasing the uncertainty in oceanic rainfall estimation from space in the coming GPM era of global long-term observations that will lead to the creation of a climate record of trends in precipitation.

Corresponding author address: Eun-Kyoung Seo, Dept. of Earth Science Education, Kongju National University, 56 GongjuDaehak-Ro, Kongju, Chungnam 314-701, South Korea. E-mail: ekseo@kongju.ac.kr.

Abstract

Version-7 (V7) rain rates retrieved by the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) are spatially and temporally collocated over the ocean and compared at TMI footprint scale for the summer months of 16 years, within the TRMM coverage belt from 38°S to 38°N latitude. This study puts special emphasis on examining how the estimates from the two instruments compare with each other for different rain types and for different geographical locations. It is found that, although the two rain-rate estimates agree with each other extremely well (only 2.6% difference) when averaged globally and over all rain types, large discrepancies (~60%) are observed if comparisons are conducted for rain pixels of only convective type or for regions where convective rain types dominate. For the stratiform rain type, the TMI and PR retrievals compare well with a difference of ~13% globally. In particular, the partial beam filling seems to be less important to the underestimation of TMI rain against PR rain than the spatial variability of rain. These findings point to the existing need for better understanding of the remote-sensing physics of convective rain. Such an improved understanding is critically important to decreasing the uncertainty in oceanic rainfall estimation from space in the coming GPM era of global long-term observations that will lead to the creation of a climate record of trends in precipitation.

Corresponding author address: Eun-Kyoung Seo, Dept. of Earth Science Education, Kongju National University, 56 GongjuDaehak-Ro, Kongju, Chungnam 314-701, South Korea. E-mail: ekseo@kongju.ac.kr.
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