Estimation of Area-Averaged Rainfall over Tropical Oceans from Microwave Radiometry: A Single Channel Approach

Abstract

This paper presents a new simple retrieval algorithm for estimating area-time averaged rain rates over tropical oceans by using single channel microwave measurements from satellites. The algorithm was tested by using the Nimbus-5 Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR-5) and a simple microwave radiative transfer model to retrieve seasonal 5° ? 5° area averaged rainrate over the tropical Atlantic and Pacific from December 1973 to November 1974. The brightness temperatures were collected and analyzed into histograms for each season and in each grid box from December 1973 to November 1974. The histograms suggest a normal distribution of background noise plus a skewed rain distribution at the higher brightness temperatures. By using a statistical estimation procedure based upon normally distributed background noise, the rain distribution was separated from the raw histogram. The radiative transfer model was applied to the rain-only distribution to retrieve area-time averaged rainrates throughout the tropics. An adjustment for the beam filling error was incorporated in the procedure. Despite limitations of single channel information, the retrieved seasonal rain rates agree well in the open ocean with expectations based upon previous estimates of tropical rainfall over the oceans. We suggest that the beam filling correction factor is the most important, but least understood parameter in the retrieval process.