Status of TRMM Monthly Estimates of Tropical Precipitation
- Author:
- Kummerow, Christian
- Published:
- [2000].
- Physical Description:
- 1 electronic document
- Additional Creators:
- Einaudi, Franco
Curtis, Scott
Adler, Robert F.
Bolvin, David
Kidd, Chris - Access Online:
- hdl.handle.net
- Restrictions on Access:
- Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available.
- Summary:
- Nearly three years of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Satellite (TRMM Satellite) monthly estimates of tropical surface rainfall are analyzed to document and understand the differences among the TRMM-based estimates and how these differences relate to the pre-TRMM estimates and current operational analyses. Variation among the TRMM estimates is shown to be considerably smaller than among a pre-TRMM collection of passive microwave-based products. Use of both passive and active microwave techniques in TRMM should lead to increased confidence in converged estimates. Current TRMM estimates are shown to have a range of about 20% for the tropical ocean as a whole, with variations in heavily raining ocean areas of the ITCZ and SPCZ having differences over 30%. In mid-latitude ocean areas the differences are smaller. Over land there is a distinct difference between the tropics and mid-latitude with a reversal between some of the products as to which tends to be relatively high or low. Comparisons of TRMM estimates with ocean atoll and land gauge information point to products that might have significant regional biases. The radar-based product is significantly low biased compared with atoll raingauge data, while the passive microwave product is significantly high compared to raingauge data in the deep tropics. The evolution of rainfall patterns during the recent change from intense El Nino to a long period of La Nina and then a gradual return to near neutral conditions is described using TRMM. The time history of integrated rainfall over the tropical oceans (and land) during this period differs among the passive and active microwave TRMM estimates.
- Collection:
- NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Collection.
- Note:
- Document ID: 20010026441.
Symposium on Cloud Systems, Hurricanes and TRMM; Unknown. - Terms of Use and Reproduction:
- No Copyright.
- Access Online:
- hdl.handle.net
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