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Passive and Active Microwave Remote Sensing of Precipitation and Latent Heating Distributions in the Tropics from TRMMPassive and active microwave remote sensing data are analyzed to identify signatures of precipitation and vertical motion in tropical convection. A database of cloud/radiative model simulations is used to quantify surface rain rates and latent heating profiles that are consistent with these signatures. At satellite footprint-scale (approximately 10 km), rain rate and latent heating estimates are subject to significant random errors, but by averaging the estimates in space and time, random errors are substantially reduced, Bias errors have been minimized by improving the microphysics in the supporting cloud/radiative model simulations, and by imposing a consistent definition of remotely-sensed and model-simulated convective/stratiform rain coverage. Remotely-sensed precipitation and latent heating distributions in the tropics are derived from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and Special Sensor Microwave/ Imager (SSM/ I) sensor data. The prototype Version 6 TRMM passive microwave algorithm typically yields average heating profiles with maxima between 6 and 7 km altitude for organized mesoscale convective systems. Retrieved heating profiles for individual convective systems are compared to coincident estimates based upon a combination of dual-Doppler radar and rawinsonde data. Also, large-scale latent heating distributions are compared to estimates derived from a simpler technique that utilizes observations of surface rain rate and stratiform rain proportion to infer vertical heating structure. Results of these tests will be presented at the conference.
Document ID
20030056608
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Olson, William S.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Kummerow, Christian D.
(Colorado State Univ. Fort Collins, CO, United States)
Yang, Song
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Haddad, Ziad S.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Tao, Wei-Kuo
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Wang, Yansen
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Lang, Stephen E.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Braun, Scott A.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Chiu, Christine
(Wisconsin Univ. Madison, WI, United States)
Wang, Jian-Jian
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2002
Subject Category
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Meeting Information
Meeting: International TRMM Science Conference
Location: Honolulu, HI
Country: United States
Start Date: July 22, 2002
End Date: July 26, 2002
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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