Nonsystematic errors of monthly oceanic rainfall derived from TMI

Long S. Chiu; Alfred T. C. Chang

doi:10.1117/12.410600

21 December 2000 Nonsystematic errors of monthly oceanic rainfall derived from TMI

Long S. Chiu, Alfred T. C. Chang

Proceedings Volume 4152, Microwave Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere and Environment II; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.410600
Event: Second International Asia-Pacific Symposium on Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere, Environment, and Space, 2000, Sendai, Japan

Abstract

A major objective of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is to produce a multi-year time series of monthly rainfall over 5 degree(s) latitude and 5 degree(s) longitude boxes with an uncertainty of 1mm/day for low rain rates and 10% for high rain rates. Based on some simple assumptions about the error structure, we compute the non-systematic errors of monthly oceanic rainfall over the same space/time domain derived from data taken by the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) on board the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites and TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI). The mean rain rates over a two-year period (1998-1999) are calculated to be 3.0, 2.85, 2.94 mm day^-1 for SSM/I onboard the DMSP F-13, F-14 and TMI, respectively. Assuming that the non-systematic errors for each sensor are independent, the errors are calculated to be 22.2%, 22.4%, and 19.7% for F-13, F-14 and TMI, respectively. The non- systematic error for the TMI is smaller than that for either F-13 or F-14 SSM/I at the low rain rates but is comparable at rain rates higher than about 5mm/day. The TRMM objective of 1mm day^-1 for non-systematic error is met by TMI for rain rates up to 5-6mm day^-1. For higher rain rates, the nonsystematic error is in the 15% range. The goal of a 10% error for high rain rates may be realized by a combination of sensor measurements from multiple satellites, such as that advocated by the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM).

Citation Download Citation

Long S. Chiu and Alfred T. C. Chang "Nonsystematic errors of monthly oceanic rainfall derived from TMI", Proc. SPIE 4152, Microwave Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere and Environment II, (21 December 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.410600

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