A new instrument with rainfall monitoring potential

Barrett, EC; Kidd, Christopher; Bailey, John O.

doi:10.1080/01431168808954993

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Work is now being carried out to investigate whether the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) 88.5-GHz channels of the U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) can be used to measure min. Barrett et al [1988] report early results that are encouraging for convective rain. It remains to be seen to what extent mid-latitude frontal rain can be measured.…”

Section: Satellite-borne Microwave Instruments Hold Consider-mentioning

confidence: 92%

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Nowcasting of precipitation systems

Browning¹,

Collier²

1989

Reviews of Geophysics

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Digital remotely sensed observations of the atmosphere, particularly from radars and satellites, have become increasingly available over the last 15 years. Together with developments in computer technology this has stimulated the design and operation of a variety of systems to exploit these data in weather forecasting. Growing awareness of the importance of detailed site specific weather information and forecasts from zero to a few hours ahead has led to the emergence of a particular kind of forecasting called nowcasting which depends on the exceptionally detailed knowledge of the current pattern of weather that remote sensing can provide. This type of weather forecasting is reviewed, with emphasis on the measurement and extrapolation up to about 2 hours ahead of fields of various weather parameters, especially rainfall. Trends in the design of nowcasting systems are discussed, and potential benefits summarized. tion of the weather, have been available to forecasters in real time and in a digital form amenable to manipulation. Although the preparation of forecasts by extrapolating the observed fields might be regarded as a simple extension of what forecasters have done for generations, limitations in observing capability and understanding of mesoscale phenomena, together with the practical difficulties of handling vast quantifies of data quickly, make this a challenging task in practice.Since extrapolation is the basis of nowcasting systems, the quality of the resulting forecasts depends upon the time ahead for which linear extrapolation is valid. This varies for different weather systems as shown in Table 1. Frontal rainbands, for example, persist for many hours. However, severe weather caused by individual convective systems is short-lived, and linear extrapolation on its own is unlikely to provide good forecasts beyond an hour or so. The larger-scale systems with greater persistence, such as fronts, often act as the trigger for the smaller convective Published in 1989 by the American Geophysical Union. ß 345 ß Reviews of Geophysics, 27, 3 / August 1989 pages 345-370 Paper number 89RG01134 346 ß Browning and Collier: NOWCASTING OF PRECIPITATION SYSTEMS 27, 3 / REVIEWS OF GEOPHYSICS storm/blizzard High wind gusts 5-30 min very limited accompanying shallow showers Hurricane many hours fair Frontal passage many hours fair to good After Zipser [ 1983]. (Part of this table is from Doswell [ 1986].) 27, 3 /REVIEWS OF GEOPHYSICS Browning and Collier: NOWCASTING OF PRECIPITATION SYSTEMS ß 347 when and where it will be triggered, unless there is some well-def'med topographical forcing, for example. We shall not discuss the nonlinear methods further in this review; rather we concentrate on the conceptually simple linear nowcasting techniques that have been developed to characterize, track, and extrapolate the motion of existing weather features detected by mdars and satellite. At present, nowcasting systems in several countries are providing data for severe weather warning, hydrological forecasting, snow clearance on roa...

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Section: Satellite-borne Microwave Instruments Hold Consider-mentioning

confidence: 92%

“…drizzle at one extreme and thunderstorms at the other. Battan [1973] lists over 60 R:Z relationships. The presence of updrafts or downdrafts also affects the R:Z relationship [Battan, 1976;Ulbrich, 1986].…”

Section: Variability Of the R:z Relationship: The Values Of A And B Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Nowcasting of precipitation systems

Browning¹,

Collier²

1989

Reviews of Geophysics

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“…In 1987 the first fully calibrated multichannel microwave radiometer, the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) was launched on the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) series of satellites. These sensors provide observations from 18 to 85 GHz, the latter being particularly useful for rainfall estimation over land (Barrett et al , 1988). The SSM/I series of sensors have been the mainstay of information from microwave imagers since 1987, but the follow‐on Special Sensor Microwave Imager‐Sounder (SSMIS; Kunkee et al , 2008) sensor has remained under‐used due to absolute calibration issues.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global precipitation measurement

Kidd

Huffman

2011

Meteorological Applications

415

179

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ABSTRACT:The quantification of precipitation on a global scale is critical for applications ranging from climate monitoring to water resource management. Conventional observations through surface gauge networks provide the most direct measure of precipitation, although these are very much limited to land areas, with very few in situ measurements over the oceans. Weather radars, although providing a spatial measure of precipitation, are limited in extent and number. Satellite observations offer an unrivalled vantage point to observe precipitation on a global basis. Since precipitation is spatially and temporally highly variable, satellites are able to provide temporal and spatial samples commensurate with many precipitation characteristics. This paper provides an overall review of global precipitation estimation, providing an outline of conventional measurements, the basis of the satellite systems used in the observation of precipitation, and the generation, availability and validation of the derived precipitation products. Finally, future satellite precipitation missions are presented.

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“…Efforts of using 37-GHz observations over land areas (Weinman & Guetter, 1977;Spencer et al, 1983;Spencer, 1986) have met with partial success. In 1987 with the launch of SSM/I having channels at frequencies higher than 85.5 GHz, microwave monitoring of heavier convective rainfall over land became possible (Barrett et al, 1988;Spencer et al, 1989). The major limitation of all passive microwave techniques is their dependence on the brightness temperature depression induced by frozen precipitation aloft.…”

Section: Ssm/i Precipitation Ratementioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Precipitation Rate Assimilation over India and Surrounding Regions

Dutta

Prasad

2012

ESR

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An Observation System Experiment has been described that examines the impact of precipitation rate, obtained from SSM/I onboard the DMSP satellites and those from the TRMM. Analysis scheme used is Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) with the forecast model T254L64. Analyses are carried out globally for four times daily at six hourly intervals from 00z to 18z. Two sets of simulations were performed. Precipitation rate measured by SSM/I and TRMM are assimilated and subsequently forecasts for 168 hour are made through the NCMRWF's GFS for the entire month of June-2009. The analyses and forecasts are also repeated for the entire period without assimilating the precipitation rate data. The results are analyzed globally giving special emphasis over India and surrounding regions. When compared with the observations, improvement of analyses and forecasts from experimental simulations were noticed. Analyses versus observation study showed improvement in terms of lower RMSE over both Tropics and Indian region. Positive impact on temperature analysis is seen over all the three levels of 850, 500 and 250hPa. For vector wind and geo-potential height analysis positive impact of assimilation is seen over 500 and 250hPa pressure levels. In forecast versus analysis comparison, the differences in the values from the two simulations are mostly insignificant. For a few cases, the experimental simulations shows significant improvement over the control runs. When compared with the observations, consistent improvement in the experimental forecast in terms of lower RMSE is found over both Tropics and Indian region. Improvement in all the three parameters (temperature, horizontal wind and geo-potential height) is observed.

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A new instrument with rainfall monitoring potential

Cited by 15 publications

References 5 publications

Nowcasting of precipitation systems

Nowcasting of precipitation systems

Global precipitation measurement

Impact of Precipitation Rate Assimilation over India and Surrounding Regions

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