Sub-daily rainfall variability on the west of Puerto Rico using TRMM and goes satellite and tropinet ground-based radar data

The primary goal of this work is to compare rain rate (RR) data from multiple sensors including satellites (geostationary and orbiting) and ground-based weather radars with the intention of identifying variations in sub-daily rain patterns or the amount of total precipitation potentially due to climate change scenarios on the west region of Puerto Rico. Historically this region of PR receives the highest rainfall through the year and possess a highly predictable daily raining pattern during wet season and for this reason it was chosen as the area under study for this work. For this analysis, hourly rainfall data (3hr periods in the case of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)) from the west of Puerto Rico's during its wet and dry seasons were analyzed. This data is then validated using University of Puerto Rico's TropiNet X-Band weather radars. Comparisons of TRMM vs. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite West (GOESW) data for the years 2007 through 2015 agree mostly except for a discrepancy during the year 2008. Analysis of the hourly satellite data during wet season suggest that mean rainfall at peak hours are decreasing slightly in recent years and the occurrences of rain events at peak hours are also decreasing at a high rate.