Why is Satellite Precipitation Going South South of 40° South? — Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society
  1. Schedule
  2. 06(iv). Tropics to ice: clouds, aerosol, composition and chemistry
  3. Why is Satellite Precipitation Going South South of 40° South?

Why is Satellite Precipitation Going South South of 40° South? (#81)

Alain Protat 1 , Christian Klepp 2 , Valentin Louf 3 , Walter Petersen 4 , Simon Alexander 5 , Gerald Mace 6
  1. Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  2. University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
  3. Monash University, Clayton
  4. NASA-MSFC, Huntsville, Alabama, USA
  5. Australian Antarctic Division, Hobart, TAS
  6. University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Precipitation is a key source of freshwater. Therefore, observing and monitoring global patterns of precipitation and its intensity, and detecting long-term changes in precipitation are critically important for science, society, and understanding our planet in a changing climate. Satellites such as the NASA/JAXA Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) provide an optimal platform from which to measure precipitation globally. Recent validation efforts of the new GPM rainfall products have highlighted large statistical discrepancies in zonal precipitation averages between the different operational techniques south of about 40°S in latitude. The main objective of this work is to characterize the latitudinal variability of the DSD properties using a new in-situ shipboard global ocean rainfall database produced by the Ocean Rainfall And Ice-phase precipitation measurement Network (OceanRAIN) in order to better inform further GPM rainfall algorithm developments for the higher latitudes. The OceanRAIN database was collected using an optical disdrometer specifically designed for all-weather shipboard operations and includes more than 6.83 million minutes of drop size distribution and rainfall rate measurements from eight ships, covering most latitudes. Please come along to find out why satellite precipitation is going south south of 40º South.

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