Verification of Instantaneous Precipitation Estimates from Individual LEO Satellites
Abstract
Instantaneous rain rate fields retrieved from individual satellites are compared with ground observations at overpass time (snapshot comparisons). The new high-resolution reference products which allow such comparisons are the 1) NOAA/NSSL Next Generation QPE (Q2) high-resolution (1 km, instantaneous) radar-only national mosaics, with updates every 5 minutes, and 2) high-resolution gauge-adjusted radar national mosaics, which we have developed by applying a gauge correction on the Q2 products. Among the satellite/instrument being evaluated are: AQUA/AMSR-E, NOAA16/AMSU-B, NOAA18/MHS, NOAA19/MHS, MetOp-2A/MHS and TRMM/TMI. The spatial structure of the errors is investigated by analyzing a large dataset of pairs of collocation observations over the South Central United States. Satellite-by-satellite analysis reveals a systematic bias that is associated with each individual satellite. The area average rain rate is severely underestimated by several satellites and overestimated by others. The analysis also finds a systematic bias between the Q2 and the new gauge-adjusted radar fields. The Q2 and the gauge-adjusted products provide a breakthrough in the accuracy of large-scale high-resolution surface reference data available for various hydrological applications, and for verification of satellite snapshot observations. Such products will be used for evaluation of the GPM core observations and for error characterization of the multi-satellite products. The presentation will describe the new reference products and our satellites verification effort.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFM.H44E..06A
- Keywords:
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- 1840 HYDROLOGY / Hydrometeorology;
- 1853 HYDROLOGY / Precipitation-radar;
- 1854 HYDROLOGY / Precipitation;
- 3354 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Precipitation