Extended Abstract (84K)5A.7
Gauging tropical rainfall potential with a blended satellite technique
F. Joseph Turk, NRL, Monterey, CA; and J. D. Hawkins
Tropical cyclones undergo most of their development over-water and outside the range of ground-based radar systems. While there have been various satellite-based methods developed to analyze storm intensity, information a storm’s rain accumulation and the changes temporally and spatially are important for monitoring flood-producing potential as the system approaches landfall. Fresh water flooding has become a major factor responsible for loss of life and damage as storms inundate low-lying coastal areas experiencing explosive population growth. In addition, recent improvements to several numerical weather prediction (NWP) models now permit the variational assimilation of satellite-derived precipitation observations. While low Earth-orbiting (LEO) satellites with passive microwave sensors (PMW) are capable of analyzing the rainfall associated with these storms, their observations take place at intermittently-spaced intervals depending upon the satellite overpass schedule, and do not capture the full evolution of the rainfall process. In this presentation we describe the potential capabilities afforded by the NRL blended satellite precipitation estimation technique. The technique relies upon time and space intersecting orbit coverage of all active PMW sensors (Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager (TMI), Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU-B) and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E)) with any of the current operational geostationary satellite (GOES-9/10/12, Meteosat-5/7) imagers, in order to adjust the geostationary data in-between PMW overpasses. Examples of the time-integrated accumulated precipitation during the lifetime of tropical systems are demonstrated.
Session 5A, Tropical cyclone Rainfall I
Tuesday, 4 May 2004, 8:00 AM-9:45 AM, Le Jardin Room
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