Global Observations of Precipitation Using Satellite Passive Millimeter-Wave Sensors

This paper reviews main results from recently published papers and recent research being presented at IGARSS 2008. This work starts with developing and validating a global model, MM5/TBSCAT/F(¿), that simulates ground-truth and predicts millimeter-wave radiances consistent with those coincidentally observed by AMSU aboard NOAA satellites. Sensitivity studies of the assumptions in the model further encourage its use as ground truth for development of global millimeter-wave precipitation retrieval methods. MM5/TBSCAT/F(¿) was then used to (1) study appropriate specifications for geostationary microwave sounders and their retrieval accuracies, (2) evaluate the ability of ATMS to retrieve precipitation, and (3) develop a series of precipitation retrieval algorithms, AMSU/MM5, where the latest version is able to estimate surface precipitation rates over snow-covered land and sea ice consistent with CLOUDSAT observed radar reflectivity profiles, provided that the atmosphere is not too cold to permit retrievals.