Abstract:

This specification defines the Level 3 functional and performance requirements for NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission Ground Validation System (GVS). Overall, the GPM mission has defined a series of scientific objectives which include improvement in predicting terrestrial weather, climate, and hydrometeorology through a better observational understanding of the global water cycle. The purpose of the GPM GVS is rooted in the need for independent and objective evaluation of the precipitation products generated by the GPM mission.

This specification defines the Level 3 functional and performance requirements for NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission Ground Validation System (GVS). Overall, the GPM mission has defined a series of scientific objectives which include improvement in predicting terrestrial weather, climate, and hydrometeorology through a better observational understanding of the global water cycle. The purpose of the GPM GVS is rooted in the need for independent and objective evaluation of the precipitation products generated by the GPM mission.

The Light Precipitation Evaluation Experiment (LPVEx) planned for the Gulf of Finland in September and October, 2010 will seek to address this shortcoming by collecting 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.

During the winter of 2006-2007, a number of in-situ and remote sensing precipitation measuring devices were operated at the Center of Atmospheric Research Experiment (CARE) site located near Egbert, Ontario about 30 km to the NW of the King City C-band operational dual-polarized radar. While the experiment was originally designed to measure winter precipitation for the Canadian Cloudsat/CALIPSO validation program (C3VP), the NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) ground validation program joined the efforts (cf.