P4.8
cloud properties from amsu in a semi-arid region
Amy M. Doherty, CIMSS/Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
At present, rain rate estimation over many areas of the world is poor due to sparse and unreliable ground based measurements. Good precipitation data are required over many areas of the tropics and sub-tropics, especially in semi-arid areas where the availability of water is the limiting factor in agriculture and rain rate estimation from satellites offers global coverage, without the need for ground-based observations. Microwave instruments, which can sense parameters beneath the cloud top, provide the best chance of estimating rain rate reliably. In order to improve rain rate estimation, physically accurate radiative transfer models, or forward models, are needed to simulate the observed brightness temperatures realistically. These are then used in the inversion technique, which retrieves the atmospheric parameters from the satellite radiance measurements. A radiative transfer code developed by Dr. C. Kummerow, (University of Colorado), is used to simulate brightness temperatures from the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU). The code is run using typical parameters for semi-arid areas, such as the Karoo region of South Africa, and comparisons of simulated brightness temperature will be made with measurements taken during a field study in this region. Tuning of the code is then carried out to improve the agreement between simulations and measurements. An assessment of the performance of the code for semi-arid conditions will be given.
Poster Session 4, Radiances, Clouds, and Retrievals
Wednesday, 17 October 2001, 9:15 AM-11:00 AM
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