Global Precipitation Monitoring - Satellite-based Applications on Climate Change - page 89

methods are generally preferred. For global climate scales, the PMWmeasurements
are usually preferred. When IR and PMW are combined with surface rain gauges,
the best possible product can be generated and used for global-scale applications,
such as the GPCP and CMAP products. These products have proven to be of
tremendous value in gaining a better understanding of the global precipitation
patterns on seasonal to interannual time scales.
Many of the early methods were developed using sensors that were not neces-
sarily flown for rainfall retrieval but more for tracking cloud features and monitor-
ing atmospheric temperature and moisture. Current and near-term missions are now
being designed specifically for precipitation monitoring and improving our under-
standing of precipitating systems and utilize space-based radars, such as TRMM
and CloudSat.
On the horizon is the GPM (Global Precipitation Measurement) mission, which is
a joint US-Japan mission designed to extend TRMM's observations of precipitation
to higher latitudes, with more frequent sampling (Smith et al. 2007 ). The GPM Core
satellite will carry a dual-frequency precipitation radar that will measure a broader
spectrum of precipitation types than its predecessor on TRMM (Iguchi et al. 2002 ).
GPM will also feature a “constellation” of PMW sensors that will utilize the GPM
Core to advance science improvements and that will achieve 3-hourly or less global
precipitation retrievals. Several prototype GPM-era products are already in existence
such at the CMORPH and TMPA products previously described.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank our colleagues, H. Meng, M. Sapiano, D.
Vila, and N. Wang for their contributions to this chapter. Additionally, we would like to recognize
the Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey, CA, and the Climate Prediction Center in Camp
Springs, M.D., for use of their imagery obtained from their web sites.
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