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Sea surface salinity constrains rainfall estimates over tropical oceans
Author(s) -
Yaremchuk M.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2006gl026582
Subject(s) - precipitation , climatology , environmental science , bay , sss* , salinity , surface runoff , data assimilation , geology , oceanography , meteorology , mathematics , geography , mathematical optimization , ecology , biology
Uncertainties in the monthly mean estimates of precipitation are the largest over oceanic regions with the heaviest rainfall. Using the adjoint sensitivity analysis and 4d variational assimilation of sea surface salinity (SSS) into an ocean model, we show that rainfall estimation errors in the regions of heavy precipitation could be reduced by taking SSS observations into account. Inverse analysis of SSS in the Bay of Bengal also indicates that the monthly mean rainfall of the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) is more consistent with SSS and river runoff data than other precipitation climatologies.