Articles

The unique function of precipitation radars is to provide the three-dimensional structure of rainfall, obtaining high quality rainfall estimates over ocean and land. Radar measurements are typically less sensitive to the surface and provide a nearly direct relationship between radar reflectivities and the physical characteristics of the rain and snow in a cloud. Because of the complexities of operating radar in space, limited channels (frequencies) are designed for the instruments. TRMM has a single frequency radar at the Ku-band particularly sensitive to moderate rain rates. With a single...

The Light Precipitation Evaluation Experiment (LPVEx) took place in the Gulf of Finland in September and October, 2010 and collected microphysical properties, associated remote sensing observations, and coordinated model simulations of high latitude precipitation systems to drive the evaluation and development of precipitation algorithms for current and future satellite platforms. In doing so, LPVEx sought to address the general lack of dedicated ground-validation datasets from the ongoing development of new or improved algorithms for detecting and quantifying high latitude rainfall...

Mid-latitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) took place from April 22 – June 6, 2011, near Lamont, Oklahoma in the region surrounding the Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program Southern Great Plains Central Facility. The experiment was a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility and the NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission Ground Validation (GV) program. The MC3E ideal scenario...

Precipitation Processing System (PPS) PPS provides real-time processing and post-processing of the TRMM science data is performed by the TRMM Science Data and Information System (TSDIS). Working with the TRMM principal investigators and science algorithm developers, PPS maintains the operational science data processing system and ensures the timely processing of all TRMM science instrument data. During routine operations, raw instrument data is received in near real-time by PPS and then processed by the first tier of science algorithms to produce calibrated, swath-level instrument data. Using...

Precipitation data sets, referred to as "products", are available at a variety of levels which denote the amount of processing that data has been through. These range from the raw instrument data to precipitation model outputs which are mathematically derived using the raw data as an input. Below are the definitions for each level: Level 0 Raw instrument data Level 1A Reconstructed, unprocessed instrument data at full resolution, time referenced, and annotated with ancillary information, including radiometric and geometric calibration coefficients and georeferencing parameters (i.e., platform...