Analysis of SFMR-Derived and Satellite-Based Rain Rates over the Tropical Western North Pacific
Abstract
Aircraft-derived rain rates are obtained from the Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR) operated on WC-130J in tropical cyclones over the western North Pacific during the Tropical Cyclone Structure 2008 (TCS-08) program and the Impact of Typhoons on the Ocean in the Pacific (ITOP) 2010 program. Rain rates from SFMR are compared to rain rates from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (ASMR-E) and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellites when the passes occurred within plus-or-minus three hours of the aircraft times. The relative frequency distributions of SFMR-derived rain rates matched the distribution of AMSR-E rain rates over low- to medium rain rates. However, rain rates over 10 mm h-1 occurred more frequently in the satellite-based values. Because of the difference between SFMR and AMSR-E rain rates over medium intensities, the two rain rate distributions are found to be statistically different. Similar differences were found in comparisons between SFMR and the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI)-based rain rates, and in comparisons between TMI and AMSR-E rain rates. Differences between the relative frequencies of rain rates larger than 10 mm h-1 resulted in the conclusion that the distributions of SFMR and TMI frequency distributions and AMSR-E and TMI are statistically different.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA561864
Entities
People
- Ryan S. Willis
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School