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The estimation of rain from satellite‐borne microwave radiometers
Author(s) -
Lovejoy S.,
Austin G. L.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49710644803
Subject(s) - remote sensing , satellite , radiometer , environmental science , radiometry , microwave radiometer , microwave , radar , meteorology , geology , computer science , geography , physics , telecommunications , astronomy
Recent advances in satellite‐borne microwave radiometry have led to interest in their use for rainfall amount estimation. The potential accuracy of such techniques is investigated in detail, and is estimated to be about ±70% for rainfall rate estimates, even when many wavelengths are used. The effects of the low spatial and temporal resolution of the most recently launched microwave radiometer (on Nimbus 7) are also investigated, using radar‐based computer simulations. The effects are shown to produce r.m.s. errors of ±200, ±310% respectively, yielding a total error of ±370% for independent processes.