Abstract
The application of microwave radiometry for rainfall estimation is discussed. The first part presents a description of processes by which hydrometeors affect microwave radiation.
In order to show the state-of-art of rainfall estimation with space-borne microwave radiometry five algorithms are intercompared in the second part. Two are based on scattering, one on emission and two are mixed algorithms, which include both emission and scattering.
The algorithms are applied to SSM/I observations over the Atlantic Ocean. The retrieved rainfall rates by the different algorithms partly differ a great deal. The differences depend on climatic regions, demonstrating that the algorithms are probably tuned to certain atmospheric conditions. The question arises whether a globally applicable algorithm is possible at all. A severe problem is the validation of the retrieved precipitation because hardly any direct observations are available. Thus an intercomparison of algorithms is today the only way to understand the behaviour of a scheme in different weather and climate situations and assess its results.
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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Ruprecht, E., Thomas, C. (1994). Use of Microwave Radiometry to Estimate Precipitation: Physical Basis and Intercomparison of Algorithms. In: Desbois, M., Désalmand, F. (eds) Global Precipitations and Climate Change. NATO ASI Series, vol 26. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79268-7_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79268-7_15
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