ABSTRACT
Accurate precipitation estimates over land are crucial in hydrologic applications. This chapter presents a methodology for estimating precipitation and latent heating over land from combined radar—radiometer retrieval. It discusses brightness temperature sensitivity analysis that justifies the combined methodology and highlights implications on the incoming Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission and issues that need to be addressed by future research. The chapter considers the problem of retrieving precipitation over land from spaceborne combined radar and radiometer observations. The existence of various passive microwave instruments onboard research and operational satellites, along with the upcoming deployment of additional precipitation instruments into space, makes satellite precipitation estimates suitable for hydrologic applications. Satellite radar—radiometer algorithms were developed and applied for retrievals over oceans. The derivation of combined radar—radiometer precipitation retrievals from overland GPM observations can facilitate the development of physically consistent databases of precipitation and associated brightness temperatures.
