Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2016

Presentation information

International Session (Oral)

Symbol A (Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences) » A-CG Complex & General

[A-CG10] Earth and Planetary satellite observation projects Part II: Satellite Earth Environment Observation

Mon. May 23, 2016 1:45 PM - 3:15 PM 303 (3F)

Convener:*Riko Oki(Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Tadahiro Hayasaka(Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University), Kaoru Sato(Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo), Masaki Satoh(Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo), Yoshiaki HONDA(Center for Environmental Remote Sensing, Chiba University), Kenlo Nasahara(Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba), Takashi Nakajima(Tokai University, School of Information Science & Technology, Dept. of Human & Information Science), Taikan Oki(Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo), Tsuneo Matsunaga(Center for Environmental Measurement and Analysis, National Institute for Environmental Studies), Yukari Takayabu(Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, the University of Tokyo), Hiroshi Murakami(Earth Observation Research Center, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Hajime Okamoto(Kyusyu University), Gail Skofronick Jackson(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), Paul Chang(NOAA College Park), David Crisp(Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology), Chair:Gail Jackson(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), Yukari Takayabu(Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, the University of Tokyo)

2:15 PM - 2:30 PM

[ACG10-03] Improvements in Detection of Light Precipitation with the Global Precipitation Measurement Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (GPM/DPR)

*Atsushi Hamada1, Yukari N Takayabu1 (1.Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo)

Keywords:precipitation, satellite, Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)

We demonstrates the impact of the enhancement in detectability by the dual-frequency precipitation radar (DPR) on board the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core observatory. By setting two minimum detectable reflectivities--12 and 18 dBZ--artificially to 6 months of GPM DPR measurements, the precipitation occurrence and volume increase by ~21.1% and ~1.9%, respectively, between 40S and 40N.
GPM DPR is found to be able to detect light precipitation, which mainly consists of two distinct types. One type is shallow precipitation, which is most significant for convective precipitation over eastern parts of subtropical oceans, where deep convection is typically suppressed. The other type is probably associated with lower parts of anvil clouds associated with organized precipitation systems.
While these echoes have lower reflectivities than the official value of the minimum detectable reflectivity, they are found to mostly consist of true precipitation signals, suggesting that the official value may be too conservative for some sort of meteorological analyses. These results are expected to further the understanding of both global energy and water budgets and the diabatic heating distribution.
These results are almost based on Hamada and Takayabu (2016, J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol.), but we will also report the results for other seasons, and results used the next version product (V04), which is scheduled to be released within several months.