Comparison and integration of active and passive microwave for rainfall monitoring: A study case

This paper reports the experimentation of a joint use of ground-based radar and satellite radiometer to calibrate and validate passive microwave data for rainfall monitoring. In particular, the utilization of radar vertical profile maps in order to figure out the passive microwave signatures is outlined. The experimentation has been conducted utilizing active microwave data acquired from the Chilbolton radar and passive microwave data acquired from the DMSP SSM/I instruments. The two microwave data type have been processed in order to be overlayable in time and space, and several parameters have been estimated from the SSM/I data. Radar vertical profile maps have been classified to outline the cloud structure and the obtained information have been utilized to make statistical analysis of passive microwave parameters related to rainfall over land. In particular, an attempt to divide the cloud structure into three meaningful layers has been worked out; this is important as the different channels of SSM/I can penetrate in a diverse way cloud structure. The result are in accordance to theory and outline the importance of utilizing radar vertical profiles in order to figure out the passive microwave measurements.