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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 307 records · Page 17
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2000

On Utilization of NEXRAD Scan Strategy Information to Infer Discrepancies Associated With Radar and Rain Gauge Surface Volumetric Rainfall Accumulations

To evaluate the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) monthly Ground Validation (GV) rain map, 42 quality controlled tipping bucket rain gauge data (1 minute interpolated rain rates) were utilized. We have compared the gauge data to the surface volumetric rainfall accumulation of NEXRAD reflectivity field, (converting to rain rates using a 0.5 dB resolution smooth Z-R table). The comparison was carried out from data collected at Melbourne, Florida during the month of July 98. GV operational level 3 (L3 monthly) accumulation algorithm was used to obtain surface volumetric accumulations for the radar. The gauge records were accumulated using the 1 minute interpolated rain rates while the radar Volume Scan (VOS) intervals remain less than or equal to 75 minutes. The correlation coefficient for the radar and gauge totals for the monthly time-scale remain at 0.93, however, a large difference was noted between the gauge and radar derived rain accumulation when the radar data interval is either 9 minute, or 10 minute. This difference in radar and gauge accumulation is being explained in terms of the radar scan strategy information. The discrepancy in terms of the Volume Coverage Pattern (VCP) of the NEXRAD is being reported where VCP mode is ascertained using the radar tilt angle information. Hourly radar and gauge accumulations have been computed using the present operational L3 method supplemented with a threshold period of +/- 5 minutes (based on a sensitivity analysis). These radar and gauge accumulations are subsequently improved using a radar hourly scan weighting factor (taking ratio of the radar scan frequency within a time bin to the 7436 total radar scans for the month). This GV procedure is further being improved by introducing a spatial smoothing method to yield reasonable bulk radar to gauge ratio for the hourly and daily scales.

Roy, Biswadev↗
NASA NTRS2020

Constraining the Twomey effect from satellite observations: Issues and perspectives

The Twomey effect describes the radiative forcing associated with a change in cloud albedo due to an increase in anthropogenic aerosol emissions. It is driven by the perturbation in cloud droplet number concentration (ΔNd,ant) in liquid-water clouds and is currently understood to exert a cooling effect on climate. The Twomey effect is the key driver in the effective radiative forcing due to aerosol–cloud interactions which also comprises rapid adjustments. These adjustments are essentially the responses of cloud fraction and liquid water path to ΔNd,ant and thus scale approximately with it. While the fundamental physics of the influence of added aerosol particles on the droplet concentration (Nd) is well described by established theory at the particle scale (micrometres), how this relationship is expressed at the large scale (hundreds of kilometres) ΔNd,ant remains uncertain. The discrepancy between process understanding at particle scale and insufficient quantification at the climate-relevant large scale is caused by co-variability of aerosol particles and vertical wind and by droplet sink processes. These operate at scales on the order of 10s of metres at which only localized observations are available and at which no approach exists yet to quantify the anthropogenic perturbation. Different atmospheric models suggest diverse magnitudes of the Twomey effect even when applying the same anthropogenic aerosol emission perturbation. Thus, observational data are needed to quantify and constrain the Twomey effect. At the global scale, this means satellite data. There are three key uncertainties in determining ΔNd,ant, namely the quantification (i) of the cloud-active aerosol – the cloud condensation nuclei concentrations (CCN) at or above cloud base –, (ii) of Nd, as well as (iii) the statistical approach for inferring the sensitivity of Nd to aerosol particles from the satellite data. A fourth uncertainty, the anthropogenic perturbation to CCN concentrations, is also not easily accessible from observational data. This review discusses deficiencies of current approaches for the different aspects of the problem and proposes several ways forward: In terms of CCN, retrievals of optical quantities such as aerosol optical depth suffer from a lack of vertical resolution, size and hygroscopicity information, the non-direct relation to the concentration of aerosols, the impossibility to quantify it within or below clouds, and the problem of insufficient sensitivity at low concentrations, in addition to retrieval errors. A future path forward can include utilizing colocated polarimeter and lidar instruments, ideally including high spectral resolution lidar capability at two wavelengths to maximize vertically resolved size distribution information content. In terms of Nd, a key problem is the lack of operational retrievals of this quantity, and the inaccuracy of the retrieval especially in broken-cloud regimes. As for the Nd – to – CCN sensitivity, key issues are the updraught distributions and the role of Nd sink processes, for which empirical assessments for specific cloud regimes are currently the best solutions. These considerations point to the conclusion that past studies using existing approaches have likely underestimated the true sensitivity and, thus, the radiative forcing due to the Twomey effect.

Twomey effect↗
NASA NTRS1986

Design considerations for flight test of a fault inferring nonlinear detection system algorithm for avionics sensors

This paper summarizes the modifications made to the design of a fault inferring nonlinear detection system (FINDS) algorithm to accommodate flight computer constraints and the resulting impact on the algorithm performance. An overview of the flight data-driven FINDS algorithm is presented. This is followed by a brief analysis of the effects of modifications to the algorithm on program size and execution speed. Significant improvements in estimation performance for the aircraft states and normal operating sensor biases, which have resulted from improved noise design parameters and a new steady-state wind model, are documented. The aircraft state and sensor bias estimation performances of the algorithm's extended Kalman filter are presented as a function of update frequency of the piecewise constant filter gains. The results of a new detection system strategy and failure detection performance, as a function of an update frequency, are also presented.

Caglayan, A. K.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Transport and residence times of tropospheric aerosols inferred from a global three-dimensional simulation of Pb-210

A global three-dimensional model is used to investigate the transport and tropospheric residence time of Pb-210, an aerosol tracer produced in the atmosphere by radioactive decay of Rn-222 emitted from soils. The model uses meteorological input with 4 deg x 5 deg horizontal resolution and 4-hour temporal resolution from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies general circulation model (GCM). It computes aerosol scavenging by convective precipitation as part of the wet convective mass transport operator in order to capture the coupling between vertical transport and rainout. Scavenging in convective precipitation accounts for 74% of the global Pb-210 sink in the model; scavenging in large-scale precipitation accounts for 12%, and scavenging in dry deposition accounts for 14%. The model captures 63% of the variance of yearly mean Pb-210 concentrations measured at 85 sites around the world with negligible mean bias, lending support to the computation of aerosol scavenging. There are, however, a number of regional and seasonal discrepancies that reflect in part anomalies in GCM precipitation. Computed residence times with respect to deposition for Pb-210 aerosol in the tropospheric column are about 5 days at southern midlatitudes and 10-15 days in the tropics; values at northern midlatitudes vary from about 5 days in winter to 10 days in summer. The residence time of Pb-210 produced in the lowest 0.5 km of atmosphere is on average four times shorter than that of Pb-210 produced in the upper atmosphere. Both model and observations indicate a weaker decrease of Pb-210 concentrations between the continental mixed layer and the free troposphere than is observed for total aerosol concentrations; an explanation is that Rn-222 is transported to high altitudes in wet convective updrafts, while aerosols and soluble precursors of aerosols are scavenged by precipitation in the updrafts. Thus Pb-210 is not simply a tracer of aerosols produced in the continental boundary layer, but also of aerosols derived from insoluble precursors emitted from the surface of continents. One may draw an analogy between Pb-210 and nitrate, whose precursor NO(sub x) is sparingly soluble, and explain in this manner the strong correlation observed between nitrate and Pb-210 concentrations over the oceans.

Balkanski, Yves J.↗
NASA NTRS2004

How Well are Recent Climate Variability Signals Resolved by Satellite Radiative Flux Estimates?

One notable aspect of Earth s climate is that although the planet appears to be very close to radiative balance at top-of-atmosphere (TOA), the atmosphere itself and underlying surface are not. Profound exchanges of energy between the atmosphere and oceans, land and cryosphere occur over a range of time scales. Recent evidence from broadband satellite measurements suggests that even these TOA fluxes contain some detectable variations. Our ability to measure and reconstruct radiative fluxes at the surface and at the top of atmosphere is improving rapidly. Understanding the character of radiative flux estimates and relating them to variations in other energy fluxes and climate state variables is key to improving our understanding of climate. In this work we will evaluate several recently released estimates of radiative fluxes, focusing primarily on surface estimates. The International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project FD radiative flux profiles are available from rnid-1983 to near present and have been constructed by driving the radiative transfer physics from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) global model with ISCCP clouds and HlRS operational soundings profiles. Full and clear sky SW and LW fluxes are produced. A similar product from the NASA/GEWEX Surface Radiation Budget Project using different radiative flux codes and thermodynamics from the NASA/Goddard Earth Observing System assimilation model makes a similar calculation of surface fluxes. However this data set currently extends only through 1995. Several estimates of downward LW flux at the surface inferred from microwave data are also examined. Since these products have been evaluated with Baseline Surface Radiation Network data over land we focus over ocean regions and use the DOE/NOAA/NASA Shipboard Ocean Atmospheric Radiation (SOAR) surface flux measurements to characterize performance of these data sets under both clear and cloudy conditions. Some aspects of performance are stratified according to SST and vertical motion regimes. Comparisons to the TRMM/CERES SRB data in 1998 are also interpreted. These radiative fluxes are then analyzed to determine how surface (and TOA) radiative exchanges respond to interannual signals of ENS0 warm and cold events. Our analysis includes regional changes as well as integrated signals over land, ocean and various latitude bands. Changes in water vapor and cloud forcing signatures are prominent on interannual time scales. Prominent signals are also found in the SW fluxes for the Pinatubo volcanic event. These systematic changes in fluxes are related to changes in large-scale circulations and energy transport in the atmosphere and ocean. Some estimates of signal-to-noise and reliability are discussed to place our results in context.

Robertson, Franklin R.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Proposal Drafted for Allocating Space-to-Space Frequencies in the GPS Spectrum Bands

Radionavigation Satellite Service (RNSS) systems such as the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) are primarily being used today in the space-to-Earth direction (i.e., from GPS satellite to Earth user) for a broad range of applications such as geological surveying; aircraft, automobile, and maritime navigation; hiking and mountain climbing; and precision farming and mining. However, these navigation systems are being used increasingly in space. Beginning with the launch of the TOPEX/Poseidon remote-sensing mission in 1992, over 90 GPS receivers have flown onboard spacecraft for such applications as real-time spacecraft navigation, three-axis attitude control, precise time synchronization, precision orbit determination, and atmospheric profiling. In addition to use onboard many science spacecraft, GPS has been used or is planned to be used onboard the shuttles, the International Space Station, the International Space Station Emergency Crew Return Vehicle, and many commercial satellite systems such as Orbcomm, Globalstar, and Teledesic. From a frequency spectrum standpoint, however, one important difference between the space and terrestrial uses of GPS is that it is being used in space with no interference protection. This is because there is no frequency allocation for the space-to-space use of GPS (i.e., from GPS satellite to user spacecraft) in the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) regulatory table of frequency allocations. If another space-based or groundbased radio system interferes with a spaceborne GPS user, the spaceborne user presently has no recourse other than to accept the interference. Consequently, for the past year and a half, the NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field and other Government agencies have been working within ITU toward obtaining a GPS space-to-space allocation at the next World Radio Conference in the year 2000 (WRC 2000). Numerous interference studies have been conducted in support of a primary space-tospace allocation in the 1215- to 1260-MHz and 1559- to 1610-MHz RNSS bands. Most of these studies and analyses were performed by Glenn and submitted as U.S. input documents to the international Working Party 8D meetings in Geneva, Switzerland. In the structure of the ITU, Working Party 8D is responsible for frequency spectrum issues in the RNSS and the mobile satellite service (MSS). The full texts of the studies are available from the ITU web site under Working Party 8D contributions. Note that because spaceborne RNSS receivers operate in a receive-only mode with navigation signals already being broadcast toward the Earth, the addition of a space-tospace allocation will not result in interference with other systems. A space-based RNSS receiver, however, could experience interference from systems of other services, including intraservice interference from other RNSS systems. The interference scenarios examined in the studies can be inferred from the following frequency allocation charts. In these charts, services labeled in all capital letters (e.g., "ARNS") have primary status, whereas those labeled with sentence-style capitalization (e.g., "Amateur radio") have secondary status (i.e., a service with secondary status cannot claim interference protection from or cause harmful interference to a service with primary status). Charts showing the ITU frequency allocations in the 960 to 1350 MHZ range and the 1525-1660 MHZ range are discussed and presented.

Spence, Rodney L.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Aerosol Remote Sensing from OMI Observations: An Overview

The unique advantage of OMI observations for the characterization of aerosol properties is the availability of radiance measurement at near UV wavelengths. In spite of its coarse spatial resolution, OMI's near UV observations make possible the characterization of aerosol absorption properties. This capability is unavailable in any of the currently operational high spatial resolution aerosol sensors. A unique decadal record of aerosol absorption optical depth and single scattering albedo from near UV observations has been produced from OMI observations. In this presentation we will review the evolution of OMI's aerosol retrieval capability over the past ten years including retrieval algorithm improvements, assessment of retrieved products, and development of new retrieval capabilities to infer the optical depth of aerosol layers located above clouds.

Aerosols↗
NASA NTRS1997

Bidirectional Reflectance Functions for Application to Earth Radiation Budget Studies

Reflected solar radiative fluxes emerging for the Earth's top of the atmosphere are inferred from satellite broadband radiance measurements by applying bidirectional reflectance functions (BDRFs) to account for the anisotropy of the radiation field. BDRF's are dependent upon the viewing geometry (i.e. solar zenith angle, view zenith angle, and relative azimuth angle), the amount and type of cloud cover, the condition of the intervening atmosphere, and the reflectance characteristics of the underlying surface. A set of operational Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) BDRFs is available which was developed from the Nimbus 7 ERB (Earth Radiation Budget) scanner data for a three-angle grid system, An improved set of bidirectional reflectance is required for mission planning and data analysis of future earth radiation budget instruments, such as the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES), and for the enhancement of existing radiation budget data products. This study presents an analytic expression for BDRFs formulated by applying a fit to the ERBE operational model tabulations. A set of model coefficients applicable to any viewing condition is computed for an overcast and a clear sky scene over four geographical surface types: ocean, land, snow, and desert, and partly cloudy scenes over ocean and land. The models are smooth in terms of the directional angles and adhere to the principle of reciprocity, i.e., they are invariant with respect to the interchange of the incoming and outgoing directional angles. The analytic BDRFs and the radiance standard deviations are compared with the operational ERBE models and validated with ERBE data. The clear ocean model is validated with Dlhopolsky's clear ocean model. Dlhopolsky developed a BDRF of higher angular resolution for clear sky ocean from ERBE radiances. Additionally, the effectiveness of the models accounting for anisotropy for various viewing directions is tested with the ERBE along tract data. An area viewed from nadir and from the side give two different radiance measurements but should yield the same flux when converted by the BDRF. The analytic BDRFs are in very good qualitative agreement with the ERBE models. The overcast scenes exhibit constant retrieved albedo over viewing zenith angles for solar zenith angles less than 60 degrees. The clear ocean model does not produce constant retrieved albedo over viewing zenith angles but gives an improvement over the ERBE operational clear sky ocean BDRF.

Manalo-Smith, N.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Design considerations for flight test of a fault inferring nonlinear detection system algorithm for avionics sensors

The modifications to the design of a fault inferring nonlinear detection system (FINDS) algorithm to accommodate flight computer constraints and the resulting impact on the algorithm performance are summarized. An overview of the flight data-driven FINDS algorithm is presented. This is followed by a brief analysis of the effects of modifications to the algorithm on program size and execution speed. Significant improvements in estimation performance for the aircraft states and normal operating sensor biases, which have resulted from improved noise design parameters and a new steady-state wind model, are documented. The aircraft state and sensor bias estimation performances of the algorithm's extended Kalman filter are presented as a function of update frequency of the piecewise constant filter gains. The results of a new detection system strategy and failure detection performance, as a function of gain update frequency, are also presented.

Caglayan, A. K.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Laboratory evaluation and application of microwave absorption properties under simulated conditions for planetary atmospheres

Radio absorptivity data for planetary atmospheres obtained from spacecraft radio occultation experiments and earth-based radio astronomical observations can be used to infer abundances of microwave absorbing atmospheric constituents in those atmospheres, as long as reliable information regarding the microwave absorbing properties of potential constituents is available. The key activity for this grant year has continued to be laboratory measurements of the microwave and millimeter-wave properties of the simulated atmospheres of the outer planets and their satellites. A Fabry-Perot spectrometer system capable of operation from 32 to 41 GHz was developed. Initially this spectrometer was used to complete laboratory measurements of the 7.5 to 9.3 mm absorption spectrum of ammonia. Laboratory measurements were begun at wavelengths near 3.2 mm, where a large number of observations of the emission from the outer planets were made. A description of this system is presented.

Steffes, Paul G.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Transformational derivation of programs using the Focus system

A program derivation support system called Focus is being constructed. It will formally derive programs using the paradigm of program transformation. The following issues are discussed: (1) the integration of validation and program derivation activities in the Focus system; (2) its tree-based user interface; (3) the control of search spaces in program derivation; and (4) the structure and organization of program derivation records. The inference procedures of the system are based on the integration of functional and logic programming principles. This brings about a synthesis of paradigms that were heretofore considered far apart, such as logical and executable specifications and constructive and transformational approaches to program derivation. A great emphasis has been placed, in the design of Focus, on achieving small search spaces during program derivation. The program manipulation operations such as expansion, simplification and rewriting were designed with this objective. The role of operations that are expensive in search spaces, such as folding, has been reduced. Program derivations are documented in Focus in a way that the high level descriptions of derivations are expressed only using program level information. All the meta-level information, together with dependencies between derivations of program components, is automatically recorded by the system at a lower level of description for its own use in replay.

Reddy, Uday S.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Statistical modeling of software reliability

This working paper discusses the statistical simulation part of a controlled software development experiment being conducted under the direction of the System Validation Methods Branch, Information Systems Division, NASA Langley Research Center. The experiment uses guidance and control software (GCS) aboard a fictitious planetary landing spacecraft: real-time control software operating on a transient mission. Software execution is simulated to study the statistical aspects of reliability and other failure characteristics of the software during development, testing, and random usage. Quantification of software reliability is a major goal. Various reliability concepts are discussed. Experiments are described for performing simulations and collecting appropriate simulated software performance and failure data. This data is then used to make statistical inferences about the quality of the software development and verification processes as well as inferences about the reliability of software versions and reliability growth under random testing and debugging.

Miller, Douglas R.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Impact of Assimilating GOES-Derived Land Surface Variables into the PSU/NCAR MM5

Land surface processes are known to have a profound impact on the overlying atmosphere over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Many atmospheric numerical models include special parameterizations to improve the specification and partitioning of surface fluxes which are critical to the accurate prediction of warm season boundary layer behavior, organized mesoscale circulations, and convective precipitation. However, the added degrees of freedom resulting from the inclusion of vegetation and soil schemes require the specification of additional surface parameters such as vegetative resistances, green vegetation fraction, leaf area index, soil physical and hydraulic characteristics, and the vertical distribution of soil moisture. As satellite data have become more readily available in recent years, many investigations have attempted to use these new measurements to infer missing components of the surface energy budget. Sensitivity studies have shown land-skin temperature (LST) tendencies during the mid-morning hours are strongly sensitive to the surface moisture availability (a function of soil wetness and vegetation) and less sensitive to other parameters such as surface roughness. Based upon results from these and other studies, developed a simple technique that dynamically assimilates Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) derived land-surface products into the surface energy budget of a mesoscale model. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that assimilating the GOES satellite data has the potential to improve the representation of land surface characteristics within the model without prior knowledge of the land surface characteristics. The assimilation technique is presented in Section 2 and the numerical experiments are detailed in Section 3. Preliminary results and conclusions are presented in Sections 4 and 5, respectively.

Lapenta, William M.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Soil Moisture Data Assimilation

Accurate knowledge of soil moisture at the continental scale is important for improving predictions of weather, agricultural productivity and natural hazards, but observations of soil moisture at such scales are limited to indirect measurements, either obtained through satellite remote sensing or from meteorological networks. Land surface models simulate soil moisture processes, using observation-based meteorological forcing data, and auxiliary information about soil, terrain and vegetation characteristics. Enhanced estimates of soil moisture and other land surface variables, along with their uncertainty, can be obtained by assimilating observations of soil moisture into land surface models. These assimilation results are of direct relevance for the initialization of hydro-meteorological ensemble forecasting systems. The success of the assimilation depends on the choice of the assimilation technique, the nature of the model and the assimilated observations, and, most importantly, the characterization of model and observation error. Systematic differences between satellite-based microwave observations or satellite-retrieved soil moisture and their simulated counterparts require special attention. Other challenges include inferring root-zone soil moisture information from observations that pertain to a shallow surface soil layer, propagating information to unobserved areas and downscaling of coarse information to finer-scale soil moisture estimates. This chapter summarizes state-of-the-art solutions to these issues with conceptual data assimilation examples, using techniques ranging from simplified optimal interpolation to spatial ensemble Kalman filtering. In addition, operational soil moisture assimilation systems are discussed that support numerical weather prediction at ECMWF and provide value-added soil moisture products for the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive mission.

radar backscatter↗
NASA NTRS1979

Mean sea level determination from satellite altimetry

The primary experiment on the Geodynamics Experimental Ocean Satellite-3 (GEOS-3) is the radar altimeter. This experiment's major objective is to demonstrate the utility of measuring the geometry of the ocean surface; i.e., the geoid. Results obtained from this experiment so far indicate that the planned objectives of measuring the topography of the ocean surface with an absolute accuracy of + or - 5 m can be met and perhaps exceeded. The GEOS-3 satellite altimeter measurements have an instrument precision in the range of + or - 25 cm to + or - 50 cm when the altimeter is operating in the 'short pulse' mode. After one year's operations of the altimeter, data from over 5000 altimeter passes have been collected. With the mathematical models developed and the altimeter data presently available, mapping of local areas of ocean topography has been realized to the planned accuracy levels and better. This paper presents the basic data processing methods employed and some interesting results achieved with the early data. Plots of mean sea surface heights as inferred by the altimeter measurements are compared with a detailed 1 by 1 deg gravimetric geoid.

Kahn, W. D.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Precipitation factors leading to arc cloud formation

The combined efforts of three graduate students and the principal investigator are presented. Satellite observations and interpretation have become increasingly important in the areas of weather research and operational forecasting. One reason is that geostationary satellite imagery is the only meteorological observing tool that can follow the evolution of clouds from the synoptic scale down to the cumulas scale. Therefore, it can depict atmospheric activity which is up to two orders of magnitude smaller than can be resolved by conventional meteorological observations. This unique ability of the satellite provides the meteorologist a mechanism to infer weather events down to the mesoscale. This evolution is the subject of this report.

Brundidge, Kenneth C.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Deploying expert systems in Ada

As the Department of Defense Ada mandate begins to be enforced actively, interest in deploying expert systems in Ada has increased. A prototype Ada based expert system tool is introduced called ART/Ada. This prototype was built to support research into the language and operational issues of expert systems in Ada. ART/Ada allows applications of a conventional expert system tool called ART-IM (Automated Reasoning Tool for Information Management) to be deployed in various Ada environments with efficient use of time and space. ART-IM, a C-based expert system tool, is used to generate Ada source code which is compiled and linked with an Ada base inference engine to produce an Ada executable image. ART/Ada will be used to implement several prototype expert systems for the Space Station Freedom Program testbeds.

Lee, S. Daniel↗
NASA NTRS2021

Applications of Dynamic Land Surface Information for Passive Microwave Precipitation Retrieval

Accurate, physically based precipitation retrieval over global land surfaces is an important goal of the NASA/JAXA Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM). This is a difficult problem for the passive microwave constellation, as the signal over radiometrically warm land surfaces in the microwave frequencies means that the measurements used are indirect and typically require inferring some type of relationship between an observed scattering signal and precipitation at the surface. GPM, with collocated radiometer and dual-frequency radar, is an excellent tool for tackling this problem and improving global retrievals. In the years following the launch of the GPM Core Observatory satellite, physically based passive microwave retrieval of precipitation over land continues to be challenging. Validation efforts suggest that the operational GPM passive microwave algorithm, the Goddard profiling algorithm (GPROF), tends to overestimate precipitation at the low (<5 mm h−1) end of the distribution over land. In this work, retrieval sensitivities to dynamic surface conditions are explored through enhancement of the algorithm with dynamic, retrieved information from a GPM-derived optimal estimation scheme. The retrieved parameters describing surface and background characteristics replace current static or ancillary GPROF information including emissivity, water vapor, and snow cover. Results show that adding this information decreases probability of false detection by 50% and, most importantly, the enhancements with retrieved parameters move the retrieval away from dependence on ancillary datasets and lead to improved physical consistency.

Sarah Ringerud↗