Precipitation/latent heating retrieval and validation

Rainfall retrieved from space-borne instruments has been accepted as reliable and accurate by a majority of the atmospheric community. One of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) facility rain algorithms is the passive microwave-based rain retrieval algorithm (2A-12). In order to introduce latent heating as a product of 2A-12, many improvements have been made to the current Version 5 algorithm. This paper shows how these modifications impact retrieved surface rainfall rate and latent heating estimates. Comparisons indicate that the error statistics for the prototype Version 6 2A-12 are similar to those of Version 5 at footprint-scale and 30-km resolution; however, consistent latent heating vertical profiles are now obtainable. Preliminary comparisons to dual-doppler radar-based estimates show similar heating structures, but further study will be required to establish the general credibility of 2A-12 latent heating estimates.

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