HR: 1330h
AN: H23A-16    [Abstracts]
TI: Validation for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission: Lessons Learned and Future Plans
AU: * Wolff, D B
EM: wolff@radar.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA GSFC, Code 613.1, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: * Wolff, D B
EM: wolff@radar.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: Science Systems & Applications, Inc., 10210 Greenbelt Rd. Suite 600, Lanham, MD 20706 United States
AU: Amitai, E
EM: amitai@radar.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA GSFC, Code 613.1, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Amitai, E
EM: amitai@radar.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: George Mason University, Center for Earth Observing and Space Research, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030 United States
AU: Marks, D A
EM: dmarks@radar.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA GSFC, Code 613.1, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Marks, D A
EM: dmarks@radar.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: George Mason University, Center for Earth Observing and Space Research, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030 United States
AU: Silberstein, D
EM: silber@radar.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA GSFC, Code 613.1, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Silberstein, D
EM: silber@radar.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: George Mason University, Center for Earth Observing and Space Research, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030 United States
AU: Lawrence, R A
EM: rlawrenc@pop400.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA GSFC, Code 613.1, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AB: The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) was launched in November 1997 and was a highly regarded and successful mission. A major component of the TRMM program was its Ground Validation (GV) program. Through dedicated research and hard work by many groups, both the GV and satellite-retrieved rain estimates have shown a convergence at key GV sites, lending credibility to the global TRMM estimates. To be sure, there are some regional differences between the various satellite estimates themselves which still need to be addressed; however, it can be said with some certainty that TRMM has provided a high-quality, long-term climatological data set for researchers that provides errors on the order of 10-20%, rather than pre-TRMM-era error estimates on the order of 50-10%. The TRMM GV program's main operational task was to provide rainfall products for four sites: Darwin, Australia; Houston, Texas; Kwajalein, Republic of the Marshall Islands; and, Melbourne, Florida. A comparison between TRMM GV (Version 5) and satellite (Version 6) rain intensity estimates is presented. The gridded satellite product (3G-68) will be compared to GV Level II rain-intensity and -type maps. The 3G-68 product represents a 0.5 deg x 0.5 deg data grid providing estimates of rain intensities from the TRMM Precipitation Radar, Microwave Imager and Combined algorithms. The comparisons will be classified according to geographical type (land, coast or ocean). The convergence of the GV and satellite estimates bodes well for expectations for the proposed Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) program, but it is now well understood that providing uncertainties of the estimates is perhaps more important than convergence on its own. Further, while TRMM originally focused on monthly and climatological validation, future precipitation missions should concentrate on instantaneous validation in order to avoid inevitable and large sampling errors.
DE: 1854 Precipitation (3354)
DE: 3354 Precipitation (1854)
DE: 3374 Tropical meteorology
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly