Measurements and applications of combined radar-passive microwave rainfall profiling during TOGA-COARE

The NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) represents the first opportunity to incorporate both multifrequency passive microwave and active radar measurements in a satellite precipitation retrieval algorithm. The TRMM microwave imager (TMI) includes many of the same passive channels as the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSMI), with the addition of a 10.7 GHz channel and a 14 GHz incoherent precipitation radar (PR). During the 1992-1993 TOGA-COARE experiment in the western Pacific Ocean, coordinated radar and microwave radiometer data were gathered data over a multitude of precipitating storm regions including the forming and mature stages of a tropical cyclone. Although the TRMM radiometer and radar fields of view will differ, the radar data provide clues to the underlying cloud vertical structure that can be used to mitigate ambiguities in profile-based retrieval algorithms that rely upon the passive T_B alone