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TRMM Latent Heating Retrieval and Comparisons with Field Campaigns and Large-Scale AnalysesRainfall production is a fundamental process within the Earth's hydrological cycle because it represents both a principal forcing term in surface water budgets, and its energetics corollary, latent heating (LH), is one of the principal sources of atmospheric diabatic heating. Latent heat release itself is a consequence of phase changes between the vapor, liquid, and frozen states of water. The vertical distribution of LH has a strong influence on the atmosphere, controlling large-scale tropical circulations, exciting and modulating tropical waves, maintaining the intensities of tropical cyclones, and even providing the energetics of midlatitude cyclones and other mobile midlatitude weather systems. Moreover, the processes associated with LH result in significant non-linear changes in atmospheric radiation through the creation, dissipation and modulation of clouds and precipitation. Yanai et al. (1973) utilized the meteorological data collected from a sounding network to present a pioneering work on thermodynamic budgets, which are referred to as the apparent heat source (Q1) and apparent moisture sink (Q2). Yanai's paper motivated the development of satellite-based LH algorithms and provided a theoretical background for imposing large-scale advective forcing into cloud-resolving models (CRMs). These CRM-simulated LH and Q1 data have been used to generate the look-up tables used in LH algorithms. This paper examines the retrieval, validation, and application of LH estimates based on rain rate quantities acquired from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite (TRMM). TRMM was launched in November 1997 as a joint enterprise between the American and Japanese space agencies -- with overriding goals of providing accurate four-dimensional estimates of rainfall and LH over the global Tropics and subtropics equatorward of 35o. Other literature has acknowledged the achievement of the first goal of obtaining an accurate rainfall climatology. This paper describes the second major goal of obtaining credible LH estimates as well as their applications within TRMM's zone of coverage, the standard TRMM LH products, and areas for further improvement.
Document ID
20140009132
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Tao, Wei-Kuo
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Takayabu, Yukuri
(University of Tokyo, Kashiwa)
Lang, S.
(Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Lanham, MD, United States)
Shige, S.
(Kyoto Univ. Kyoto, Japan)
Olson, W.
(Maryland Univ. Baltimore County Catonsville, MD, United States)
Hou, A.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Jiang, X.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Zhang, C.
(Miami Univ. Miami, FL, United States)
Lau, W.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Krishnamurti, T.
(Florida State Univ. Tallahassee, FL, United States)
Waliser, D.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Grecu, M.
(Maryland Univ. Baltimore County Catonsville, MD, United States)
Ciesielski, P. E.
(Colorado State Univ. Fort Collins, CO, United States)
Johnson, R. H.
(Colorado State Univ. Fort Collins, CO, United States)
Houze, R.
(Washington Univ. Seattle, WA, United States)
Kakar, R.
(NASA Headquarters Washington, DC United States)
Nakamura, K.
(Nagoya Univ. Nagoya, Japan)
Braun, S.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Hagos, S.
(Miami Univ. Miami, FL, United States)
Oki, R.
(Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Tsukuba, Japan)
Bhardwaj, A.
(Florida State Univ. Tallahassee, FL, United States)
Date Acquired
July 14, 2014
Publication Date
January 1, 2012
Publication Information
Publisher: AMS
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN10034
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG12HP08C
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG11HP16A
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
latent heating
rainfall production
hydrological cycle
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