Case Studies of Satellite derived Cyclonic Rainfall over the North Atlantic: Algorithm- Model Intercomparison and In-Situ Validation

• Main Authors: Stephan Bakan, Hartmut Grassl
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.199.1407; http://www.soc.soton.ac.uk/JRD/MET/WGASF/workshop/PDF/36klepp.doc.pdf

Satellite derived and ground validated data sets of rainfall and other important water cycle parameters during the passage of individual cyclones over the North Atlantic have been studied in detail to provide a deeper understanding of rainfall processes associated with frontal systems. The results have been compared to NWP model results and remote sensed data sets that turn out to exhibit large errors in some of the considered variables. Therefore three polar orbiting passive microwave Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) radiometers onboard the DMSP satellite series have been used for the remote sensing of North Atlantic cyclones. A Multi-Satellite-Technique was developed to obtain a complete data coverage of the North Atlantic twice a day. Cyclone and water balance parameters were derived using the algorithms of Bauer and Schlüssel from 1993, where the rainfall rate is the investigated key parameter. These data sets have been validated with in-situ VOS data and compared to the output of other SSM/I algorithms, other data sets (GPCP, ISCCP) as well as model products (ECMWF, REMO). Analysis shows that during the winter time nearly every three days intense storms with cold fronts propagating far south are occurring over the North Atlantic. The post frontal subsidence behind the