Shoichi Shige

Global Precipitation Map using Satelliteborne Microwave Radiometers by the GSMaP Project : Production and Validation

This paper documents the production and validation of retrieved rainfall data obtained from satellite-borne microwave radiometers by the Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP) Project. Using various attributes of precipitation derived from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite data, the GSMaP has implemented hydrometeor profiles derived from Precipitation Radar (PR), statistical rain/no-rain classification, and scattering algorithms using polarization-corrected temperatures (PCTs) at 85.5 and 37 GHz. Combined scattering-based surface rainfalls are computed depending on rainfall intensities. PCT85 is not used for stronger rainfalls, because strong depressions of PCT85 are related to tall precipitation-top heights. Therefore, for stronger rainfalls, PCT37 is used, with PCT85 used for weaker rainfalls. With the suspiciously strong rainfalls retrieved from PCT85 deleted, the combined rainfalls correspond well to the PR rain rates over land. The GSMaP algorithm for the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) is validated using the TRMM PR, ground radar [Kwajalein (KWAJ) radar and COBRA], and Radar Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System (AMeDAS) precipitation analysis (RA). Monthly surface rainfalls retrieved from six microwave radiometers (GSMaP_MWR) are compared with the gauge-based dataset. Rain rates retrieved from the TMI (GSMaP_TMI) are in better agreement with the PR estimates over land everywhere except over tropical Africa in the boreal summer. Validation results of the KWAJ radar and COBRA show a good linear relationship for instantaneous rainfall rates, while validation around Japan using the RA shows a good relationship in the warm season. Poor results, connected to weak-precipitation cases, are found in the cold season around Japan.

Retrieval of Latent Heating from TRMM Measurements

Rainfall is a fundamental process within the Earths hydrological cycle because it represents a principal forcing term in surface water budgets, while its energetics corollary, latent heating, is the principal source of atmospheric diabatic heating well into the middle latitudes. Latent heat production itself is a consequence of phase changes between the vapor, liquid, and frozen states of water. The properties of the vertical distribution of latent heat release modulate large-scale meridional and zonal circulations within the Tropics, as well as modify the energetic efficiencies of midlatitude weather systems. This paper highlights the retrieval of latent heating from satellite measurements generated by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite observatory, which was launched in November 1997 as a joint American–Japanese space endeavor. Since then, TRMM measurements have been providing credible four-dimensional accounts of rainfall over the global Tropics and subtropics, information that c...

Spectral Retrieval of Latent Heating Profiles from TRMM PR Data. Part I: Development of a Model-Based Algorithm

Abstract An algorithm, the spectral latent heating (SLH) algorithm, has been developed to estimate latent heating profiles for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission precipitation radar with a cloud-resolving model (CRM). Heating-profile lookup tables for the three rain types—convective, shallow stratiform, and anvil rain (deep stratiform with a melting level)—were produced with numerical simulations of tropical cloud systems in the Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment. For convective and shallow stratiform regions, the lookup table refers to the precipitation-top height (PTH). For the anvil region, on the other hand, the lookup table refers to the precipitation rate at the melting level instead of PTH. A consistency check of the SLH algorithm was also done with the CRM-simulated outputs. The first advantage of this algorithm is that differences of heating profiles between the shallow convective stage and the deep convective stage can be retrieved. This is a r...

Spectral Retrieval of Latent Heating Profiles from TRMM PR Data. Part II: Algorithm Improvement and Heating Estimates over Tropical Ocean Regions

Abstract The spectral latent heating (SLH) algorithm was developed for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) precipitation radar (PR) in Part I of this study. The method uses PR information [precipitation-top height (PTH), precipitation rates at the surface and melting level, and rain type] to select heating profiles from lookup tables. Heating-profile lookup tables for the three rain types—convective, shallow stratiform, and anvil rain (deep stratiform with a melting level)—were derived from numerical simulations of tropical cloud systems from the Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE) utilizing a cloud-resolving model (CRM). To assess its global application to TRMM PR data, the universality of the lookup tables from the TOGA COARE simulations is examined in this paper. Heating profiles are reconstructed from CRM-simulated parameters (i.e., PTH, precipitation rates at the surface and melting level, and rain type) and are compared with the t...

Shallow and deep latent heating modes over tropical oceans observed with TRMM PR spectral latent heating data.

Abstract Three-dimensional distributions of the apparent heat source (Q1) − radiative heating (QR) estimated from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR) utilizing the spectral latent heating (SLH) algorithm are analyzed. Mass-weighted and vertically integrated Q1 − QR averaged over the tropical oceans is estimated as ∼72.6 J s−1 (∼2.51 mm day−1) and that over tropical land is ∼73.7 J s−1 (∼2.55 mm day−1) for 30°N–30°S. It is shown that nondrizzle precipitation over tropical and subtropical oceans consists of two dominant modes of rainfall systems: deep systems and congestus. A rough estimate of the shallow-heating contribution against the total heating is about 46.7% for the average tropical oceans, which is substantially larger than the 23.7% over tropical land. Although cumulus congestus heating linearly correlates with SST, deep-mode heating is dynamically bounded by large-scale subsidence. It is notable that a substantial amount of rain, as large as 2.38 mm day−1 on averag...

Improvement of TMI Rain Retrievals in Mountainous Areas

AbstractHeavy rainfall associated with shallow orographic rainfall systems has been underestimated by passive microwave radiometer algorithms owing to weak ice scattering signatures. The authors improve the performance of estimates made using a passive microwave radiometer algorithm, the Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP) algorithm, from data obtained by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager (TMI) for orographic heavy rainfall. An orographic/nonorographic rainfall classification scheme is developed on the basis of orographically forced upward vertical motion and the convergence of surface moisture flux estimated from ancillary data. Lookup tables derived from orographic precipitation profiles are used to estimate rainfall for an orographic rainfall pixel, whereas those derived from original precipitation profiles are used to estimate rainfall for a nonorographic rainfall pixel. Rainfall estimates made using the revised GSMaP algorithm are in better agreement with e...

Vertical Diabatic Heating Structure of the MJO: Intercomparison between Recent Reanalyses and TRMM Estimates

AbstractCapitalizing on recently released reanalysis datasets and diabatic heating estimates based on Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), the authors have conducted a composite analysis of vertical anomalous heating structures associated with the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO). Because diabatic heating lies at the heart of prevailing MJO theories, the intention of this effort is to provide new insights into the fundamental physics of the MJO. However, some discrepancies in the composite vertical MJO heating profiles are noted among the datasets, particularly between three reanalyses and three TRMM estimates. A westward tilting with altitude in the vertical heating structure of the MJO is clearly evident during its eastward propagation based on three reanalysis datasets, which is particularly pronounced when the MJO migrates from the equatorial eastern Indian Ocean (EEIO) to the western Pacific (WP). In contrast, this vertical tilt in heating structure is not readily seen in the three TRMM product...

MJO Signals in Latent Heating: Results from TRMM Retrievals

Abstract Four Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) datasets of latent heating were diagnosed for signals in the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO). In all four datasets, vertical structures of latent heating are dominated by two components—one deep with its peak above the melting level and one shallow with its peak below. Profiles of the two components are nearly ubiquitous in longitude, allowing a separation of the vertical and zonal/temporal variations when the latitudinal dependence is not considered. All four datasets exhibit robust MJO spectral signals in the deep component as eastward propagating spectral peaks centered at a period of 50 days and zonal wavenumber 1, well distinguished from lower- and higher-frequency power and much stronger than the corresponding westward power. The shallow component shows similar but slightly less robust MJO spectral peaks. MJO signals were further extracted from a combination of bandpass (30–90 day) filtered deep and shallow components. Largest amplitudes of bo...

Relating Convective and Stratiform Rain to Latent Heating

Abstract The relationship among surface rainfall, its intensity, and its associated stratiform amount is established by examining observed precipitation data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR). The results show that for moderate–high stratiform fractions, rain probabilities are strongly skewed toward light rain intensities. For convective-type rain, the peak probability of occurrence shifts to higher intensities but is still significantly skewed toward weaker rain rates. The main differences between the distributions for oceanic and continental rain are for heavily convective rain. The peak occurrence, as well as the tail of the distribution containing the extreme events, is shifted to higher intensities for continental rain. For rainy areas sampled at 0.5° horizontal resolution, the occurrence of conditional rain rates over 100 mm day−1 is significantly higher over land. Distributions of rain intensity versus stratiform fraction for simulated precipitation data o...

Estimates of Tropical Diabatic Heating Profiles: Commonalities and Uncertainties

This study aims to evaluate the consistency and discrepancies in estimates of diabatic heating profiles associated with precipitation based on satellite observations and microphysics and those derived from the thermodynamics of the large-scale environment. It presents a survey of diabatic heating profile estimates from four Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) products, four global reanalyses, and in situ sounding measurements from eight field campaigns at various tropical locations. Common in most of the estimates are the following: (i) bottom-heavy profiles, ubiquitous over the oceans, are associated with relatively low rain rates, while top-heavy profiles are generally associated with high rain rates; (ii) temporal variability of latent heating profiles is dominated by two modes, a deep mode with a peak in the upper troposphere and a shallow mode with a low-level peak; and (iii) the structure of the deep modes is almost the same in different estimates and different regions in the tropics. The primary uncertainty is in the amount of shallow heating over the tropical oceans, which differs substantially among the estimates.