HR: 1340h
AN: A23A-0921    [Abstracts]
TI: Synergizing High-Resolution EOS Terra Satellite Data and S-POLKa Radar Reflectivity to Assess Trade Wind Cumuli Precipitation
AU: * Snodgrass, E R
EM: snodgrss@atmos.uiuc.edu
AU: Di Girolamo, L
EM: larry@atmos.uiuc.edu
AU: Rauber, R
EM: r-rauber@uiuc.edu
AU: Zhao, G
EM: gyzhao@atmos.uiuc.edu
AB: During the RICO field campaign, the EOS Terra Spacecraft and NCAR's S-POLKa radar collected coincident high-resolution visible and near-IR satellite data and dual-polarized S-band and Ka-band radar reflectivity data to understand trade wind cumuli cloud distribution and precipitation. In this paper, the comparison of the trade wind cloud field's satellite-derived cloud properties and radar-derived precipitation characteristics are presented. Specifically, these results focus on the relationship between radar reflectivity and derived rain rate to the satellite visible radiance, cloud fraction, height and thickness. Also results concerning the relationship between cloud area estimated by satellite and cloud boundary estimated by radar Bragg and Rayleigh scattering will be presented. The resolution effects between visible satellite data from the ASTER instrument at 15m ground-resolution and the S-POLKa radar data will be reviewed. The potential applications of these results to the estimation of trade wind cumuli's role in returning water to the ocean through precipitation, and to cloud and climate model parameterization will be discussed.
DE: 0399 General or miscellaneous
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005